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NOTES 

ON 

THE LATE EXPEDITION, 

&c. &c. 




London : 
Printed by Spottiswoode & Co.. 
New-street-Square. 



3 



NOTES 



THE LATE EXPEDITION 



AGAINST THE 



RUSSIAN SETTLEMENTS IN EASTERN 
SIBERIA; 



AND OF A VISIT TO JAPAN AND TO THE SHORES OF TARTAEY, 
AND OF THE SEA OF OKHOSTK. 



BY 

CAPT. BERNARD WHITTINGHAM 



ROTATj engineers. 



LONDON: 
LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS. 
1856. 



1 




PREFACE. 



The following rough notes were originally 
pencilled at intervals of a few days, to refresh 
the recollections of their writer, and they have 
subsequently been copied amidst the bustle of 
the saloons of crowded Oriental steamers ; 
and as the duties of the writer's profession 
preclude any attempt to remould or amplify 
them, they are offered in their present un- 
polished form, in the hope that the slight and 
meagre information they afford of lands com- 
paratively unknown — the Japan Islands, and 
the shores of Tartary and Eastern Siberia— 
may interest the public. The manners and 
customs of the Japanese are exhibited in the 
light reflected from several interviews with 



vi 



PREFACE. 



officers of high rank, and from numerous 
opportunities of unrestrained intercourse with 
the industrial classes. 

The dominions of Russia have been silently 
and securely extended in Central and Eastern 
Asia, and it is impossible to converse with an 
intelligent Russian officer without perceiving 
the immense advantages these late conquests 
are acquiring for that Power ; and the natural 
feelings of enmity and alarm of Russia, ex- 
perienced instinctively by the tribes of Tartars 
and of Ainos, are easily visible to the tra- 
veller, whilst the covert hatred and dread 
entertained by the Japanese of their encroach- 
ing neighbours require more time to elicit. 

The writer has attempted to bring out the 
different phases of an ill-directed expedition 
with candour, yet he can scarcely hope that 
the criticisms passed upon it will be deemed 
as respectful to the chief in command as he 
has striven to render them. The despatches 



PREFACE. vil 

have not been published, and, therefore, the 
materials for forming an opinion are such facts 
as are made patent by the positions of the 
squadron during the short season for opera- 
tions. 

London, Jan. 6. 1856. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Object of the Writer in joining Naval Expedition. — Its 
Prospects. — Leave Hong Kong. — Mildness of the Winter 
in Southern China. — Sail along Shores of Formosa.— 
Currents found in the Pacific. — Aerolite of extraordi- 
nary brilliancy seen. — Approach Straits of Corea. — First 
Whale Ship seen. — Drift past Japanese Island. — Its 
Cultivation. — Appearance of the Habitations. — Man over- 
board. — Commodore's former saving of a Seaman's Life. — 
Enter Sea of Japan. — Gradual cooling of Sea-water. — 
Beach Straits of Sangar. — Snow on the Hills. — Excite- 
ment consequent on entering Japanese Port for first Time 

Page 1 



CHAP. II. 

Description of the Harbour of Hakodadi. — Fine Mountain 
Scenery. — Extinct Volcano. — Numerous Fishing-Boats. — 
Train of Ponies carrying Merchandise. — Japanese kill no 
Animals. — Exemplified by Tameness of Sea-Gulls and Wild 
Ducks. — Astonishment expressed by Japanese on being 
asked for Beef. — Visit of Harbour-Master. — Description 
of his Boat. — Ensign of the official Position of Occupier. — 
Astonishment of Japanese at the Appearance of the Inter- 
preters addressing them in pure Japanese. — Demand for 
Provisions. — Refusal to give Meat. — Prostration before 



X 



CONTENTS. 



Superiors. — Visit from the Lieut.-Governor.' — Conversa- 
tion. — Interview with the Harbour-Master. — Forms of 
Ceremonial. — Description of the Harbour-Master's Office. 
— Walk through the Town. — Difficulties thrown in the way 
of seeing the People. — Japanese Women. — Bazaars ar- 
ranged. — The Objects exposed. — Description of the Town. 

— Bhuddist Temple. — Manage to get rid of Police Es- 
cort. — Gales of Wind. — Estimation of Merchants. — 
Another Visit from Harbour-Master. — Vessel seen. — 
Suspected to be Russian. — Visit to the Governor. — 
Appearance of high Officials. — Description of the Palace- 
temple of Governor. — Ceremonies. — Dignity of Governor. — 
Conversation. — Refreshments. — Interview shortened by 
Report of another strange Sail. — False Alarm. — Take long 
Walk in the Environs of Hakodadi. — Visit Bazaar. — Diffi- 
culties of Exchange. — Efforts to get Swords. — Their 
supposed good Temper. — Walk to neighbouring Hamlets. — 
Civilities of District Headman. — Settle Accounts with 
Harbour- Master and Merchants, — Sail from Hakodadi 

Page 13 

CHAP. III. 

Difficulty of getting Westward. — Distant View of Matsmai. 

— The Beauty of its Position. — Fine Peak of Risiri. — 
Glimpse of Sagalien. — Gale of Wind and Sleet. — Pass 
Cape Lamanon. — Go Ashore. — Deserted Hamlet. — Pro- 
ceed further North. — Land. — Interview with Natives. — 
Description of them. — Large Black Bear caged. — Super- 
stition of the Natives. — Their Worship of the Bear. — 
Anchor off Baie de la Jonquiere. — Visit Settlement. — Coal 
found. — Stand across for De Castries Bay. — See Ships 
under Land. — Discovered to be Russian Squadron at An- 
chor. — Reconnoitred. — Force of the Enemy. — Steamer 
goes in to find Passage. — Description of Bay. — Position of 
Russian Ships. — Exchange Shots. — Find no Channel for 
Frigate. — Cruise off Mouth of Harbour. — Go to the South, 



CONTENTS. 



xi 



— Despatch Brig for Reinforcements. — Cruise. — Return 
to De Castries Bay. — Find it deserted. — Secrecy of it. — 
Land.— Signs of hasty Flight - - - Page 68 



CHAP. IV. 

Sail to the South. — Strange Sail at Night. — Quarters.— 
Stranger runs into Hornet. — An American. — Flagship seen 
and joined. — Cruising near Cape Crillon. — Land. — Rein- 
forcements. — Go North again.— Slow Pace. — Again reach 
Baie de la Jonquiere. — Squadron remains there. — Hasty 
Reconnoitre of the Head of Gulf of Tartary. — Squadron re- 
turns to Cape Crillon. — French Ships arrive. — Departure 
of Flagship for Japan - - - - - 100 



CHAP. V. 

Allied Squadron left at Cape Crillon. — Further Objects to be 
attained. — State of French Frigate Sibylle. — Anchor in 
Aniwa Bay. — Fishing Station of Japanese. — Inspect it. 

— Japanese Rule over Southern Sagalien despotic. — 
Fertility of the Island. — La Sibylle proceeds to the 
South, the Squadron to the North. — Sea of Okhotsk. — 
Perpetual Fogs. — Coldness of its Waters. — Evidences of 
the Discharge of a large Body of fresh Water. — Distance of 
the River Amur. — Its Current encountered. — Fall in with 
H. M. S. Barracouta. — History of the Doings of the Pacific 
Squadrons. — Off extreme Northern Point of Sagalien. — 
Currents. — Deception of Obman Bay. — Endeavour to 
enter Gulf of the Amur. — Difficulties. — Saw a Brig in- 
side. — Its Movements indicative of being Russian. — Further 
Trials to find Passage. — Soundings. — Try the Western 
Shore. — Approach near Brig. — Deserted and set on Fire, 

— Visited. — Half the Crew captured. — Information from 
Prisoners - - - - - -119 



Xll 



CONTENTS. 



CHAP. VI. 

Steer towards Aian. — Fogs. — Arrival at Aian. — Its Ap- 
pearance. — Is deserted. — Land. — Information derived 
from chief Factor. — Dig for buried Guns and Stores. — 111 
Success of Search. — Find concealed China. — Use of 
Settlement to Russia. — The Natives. — Archbishop. — In- 
terview 6 with him. — Barracouta leaves Squadron. — Re- 
turns with half of the Diana's shipwrecked Crew. — Sick 
Russians put on Shore. — Salmon and Trout caught. — 
Landing of Seamen. — Reflections. — Sail again for Cape 
Elizabeth. — Meet H. M. S. Encounter. — Southwards 
through Sea of Okhotsk. — Arrive at Aniwa Bay. — Skirt 
Shores of Sagalien, and Risiri and Rifunsiri Islands. — 
Conduct and Appearance of Russian Prisoners. — Distance 
at which Capes were visible. — Pass Matsmai. — Enter 
Sangar Straits. — Arrive at Hakodadi - Page 135 



CHAP. VII. 

Visit of Harbour-Master.— The Comings and Goings of the 
Ships confuse him. — Changed Appearance of the Port. — 
Proceed into the Country in Boats. — Villages continuous. 
— Inhabitants civil. — Fly-fishing. — Astonishment of the 
Natives. — Matrons and Maids. — Early Marriages. — Visit 
to Governor. — The Garden of the Temple. — French Sick 
lodged in a Temple. — Its Priest. — Apparent essential 
Ceremonies. — Tea-gardens. — Freedom permitted to un- 
married Women. — The Governor visits the Frigate. — 
Retinue and State. — " The Illustrated News" invariably 
chief Topic of Conversation. — European Ladies' Dresses 
and Dancing incomprehensible. — Ideas of Architecture. — 
Luncheon. — Habits of Eating. — Powers of Drinking.— 
Curiosity and Intelligence of Governor. — Differences of 
Costume between Chinese and Japanese. — Walk into the 
Country. — Island of Yezzo. — Late Conquest by Japanese. 



CONTENTS. 



xiii 



— Interior inhabited by Ainos. — Description of Ainos. — 
Wealth of Country - Page 159 



CHAP. VIII. 

Leave Hakodadi.— " Beating " out. — Outsail Consort. — Gale of 
Wind in the Pacific— -Shores of Nipon. — Islands off the Bay 
of Yeddo. — Active Volcano. — Appearance of Land near 
Simoda. — Reach Simoda. — Badly chosen Port. — Difficult of 
Access. — Small. — Loss of Russian Frigate Diana. — 
Details of Russian Movements. — Russians escape. — Build 
a Vessel. — Distress of the Shipwrecked Officers. — Their 
Accounts of Japan. — American Treaty. — Russian Treaty. 
— Sail to the South. — The magnificent Spectacle pre- 
sented by Fitsujama Mountain. — Japanese Group hap- 
pily situated. — Evidences of its Wealth and Fertility. — 
Van Diemen's Strait. — Its Current. — Clusters of Volcanic 
Islands. — Active Volcano. — Island of Kiusu. — Its Go- 
vernment. — Importance. — Distant View of South-western 
Shores of Japan. — Island of Amakusu. — Christians. — 
Conduct of Dutch. — Nagasaki to Windward - - 187 



CHAP. IX. 

Nagasaki Harbours. — Defences. — Signs of high Cultivation. — 
Cordons of Boats still used against Foreigners. — Uncivil 
Treatment of English Officers by Japanese Authorities. — 
III Effects of a bad Treaty. — Climate in Summer. — Diffi- 
culties in obtaining Refreshments or Provisions for the 
Ships. — Exercise Ground given. — Attempts to alter the 
undignified Position of a Great Power. — Law made since 
Captain Pellew's Visit in 1808. — Visit to the Governor. — 
Steam Tender employed. — Accompanied by Native Boats. — 
Description of Boats. — Inner Harbour. — Dutch Ships of 

War. — City of Nagasaki Dezima. — Interview. — Less 

Politeness than at Hakodadi. — , Old Feelings of Contempt 



xiv 



CONTENTS. 



kept alive. — Talents of Japanese in conducting Conver- 
sations. — Refreshments. — The Endeavours to get the Terms 
of the Convention carried out foiled. — Return from Inter- 
view. — Dutch Commodore visits English Commodore pri- 
vately. — English and French Admirals arrive at Nagasaki. — 
At so late a Season another Expedition sent to the Amur.— 
Its Chances of Success. — Mistakes made during the two 
last Summers. — Prospects for next Campaign. — Russian 
Prisoners request to be landed. — The Conditions. — 
Fruitless Negotiation. — Trade with Japan. — Difficulties 
of Exchange. — Causes. — Probable Consumption of Woollen 
and Cotton Fabrics. — Copper Mines — Less valuable. — 
Require the Aid of Science and superior Mechanics. — 
Missionary Field. — Caution. — Medical Missionaries. — Be- 
nefit to be derived from Resident Diplomatic Agents. — 
Regrets at leaving J apan after so short a Glimpse. — Ad- 
vantages possessed by the Japanese - - Page 210 



CHAP. X. 

Leave Nagasaki in Steamer under Sail. — Gale of Wind. — 
Fruitless Attempt to put back under Steam. — Run before 
the Gale. — Approach the Yang-tse-Kiang. — Shanghai. — As- 
pect the Year before when held by the Rebels. — State of 
the Rebellion. — The Christianity professed by " the Breth- 
ren." — New Testament Distribution. — Leave Shanghai. — 
Hong Kong. — Increase. — Coasts of Cochin China. — Sin- 
gapore. — Chinese Monopolies. — Industrial Trades. — Cul- 
tivated Interior of Island. — Pulo Penang. — Its Beauty. — 
Partially destroyed. — Waterfall. — Fort. — Ceylon. — 
Richness of Cocoa-nut Trees. — Chinese Emigration pro- 
posed. — Old Fort. — Promenade. — Lady Overboard. — 
Endeavours to find her fruitless. — Aden. — Its Strength. — 
Its Aridity. — Shores of Red Sea, — Suez. — Desert Roads. 
— Cairo. — Its peculiar Character. — Gardens. — Railroad. — 
Alexandria. — M. de Lesseps' Scheme of a Canal from 
Peluse to Suez. — Advantages to Egypt. — Effect upon our 



CONTENTS, 



XV 



Eastern Possessions. — English Policy. — Strength of the 
Defences of Alexandria, — Malta. — French and English 
Soldiers in the Cafes. — Improvements in the Works. — 
Maltese Architecture. — Gibraltar. — Its Strength discussed. 
— Tarifa. — Cintra. — Reach Southampton - Page 245 



APPENDIX I. 

On the Repulse at Petropaulski. — Its Causes, unknown to the 
Public — Mystified. — Losses caused by this System. — 
The Question to be answered. — The apparent Incompre- 
hensibility of this Failure. — The Operations at Petro- 
paulski and De Castries Bay compared - - 295 



APPENDIX II. 

Suggestions for future Operations in the Gulf of Tartary. — 
Whence good Charts are obtainable. — Description of 
Ships to be used. — Light Steamers with heavy Guns. — 
Colliers. — Blockade of Northern Entrance to the Gulf of 
Amur. — The Employment of Troops seemingly useless. — 
Hopes of early News from Gulf of Tartary. — Lesson taught 
last Spring - - - - - - 298 



THE 



NOTES 

ON 

LATE EXPEDITION, 



&c. &c. 



CHAPTER I. 

Object of the Writer in joining Naval Expedition. — Its 
Prospects. — Leave Hong Kong. — Mildness of this Winter 
in Southern China. — Sail along Shores of Formosa. — 
Currents found in the Pacific. — Aerolite of extraordi- 
nary Brilliancy seen. — Approach Straits of Corea. — First 
Whale Ship seen. — Drift past Japanese Island. — Its 
Cultivation. — Appearance of the Habitations. — Man over- 
board. — Commodore's former saving of a Seaman's Life, — 
Enter Sea of Japan. — Gradual cooling of Sea-water. — 
Reach Straits of Sangar. — Snow on the Hills. — Excite- 
ment consequent on entering Japanese Port for first time. 

In the month of March of this year, the 
gradual increase in the number of the English 
and French frigates lying in the fine harbour 
of Hong Kong betokened a speedy termina- 
tion to the inactivity of the allied squadrons 

B 



2 OBJECT IN JOINING THE EXPEDITION. 



in the Eastern Seas, and once more awakened 
the sentiments of pride and hope which, since 
the declaration of war last year, the appa- 
rently aimless movements and ill success of our 
naval forces on the north-eastern shores of 
Asia had repressed. 

I was then on the eve of relinquishing the 
command of the Koyal Engineers at Hong 
Kong ; and recollecting the circumstances of 
the disastrous repulse at Petropaulowski in 
the preceding autumn, I considered it my 
duty to offer my services, with the concur- 
rence of the officer commanding the troops, 
to the admiral. His Excellency stated that 
he had no idea of attacking any of the Eus- 
sian ports in the East; and I should have 
given up all thoughts of joining the squa- 
dron, had I not received a kind invitation 
from Commodore the Hon. C. Elliot to take 
a cruise with him, and had I not been con- 
vinced that it was incompatible with our inte- 
rests and our honour to allow a second summer 
to pass away without an attempt to discover 
the progress of Russian aggrandisement in 
North-eastern Asia, and to ascertain how far 
the reports of her successful encroachment 



SCANTY SOURCES OF INFORMATION. 3 

on the sea frontiers of China and Japan were 
true. 

On the latter point the information was 
most meagre ; so much so, that the slight and 
clever article in Fraser's Magazine of January 
or February last was read with avidity by 
the chief officers of the squadron : the other 
sources of information were the scanty records 
of missionary visits, and conversations with 
the plenipotentiary and diplomatic officers of 
the United States. From the intercourse 
which had lately been held between the Ame- 
rican minister and the Kussian envoy to 
Japan, Vice-Admiral Puniatin, it was evident 
that there had been no very careful conceal- 
ment of the position and prospects of Russia 
in the East, and it was occasionally possible 
to elicit some striking facts indicative of the 
rapid consolidation of her conquests along the 
fertile valley of the Amur, which stretches 
nearly 2000 miles in the temperate zone into 
the heart of Asia. 

Elate with hope, and looking forward con- 
fidently to successful service, I embarked, on 
the 7th April, on board H. M.S. Sibylle as 
a visitor, and found that an advanced squa- 

B 2 



4 



WINTER, IN SOUTHERN CHINA. 



dron, consisting of that frigate, the steam 
corvette Hornet, and the brig Bittern, were 
to sail that day for the North. The pleasure of 
leaving the tropics, the delight of being soon 
employed on active service, and the certain 
distinction to be gained under their popular 
commander, was visible in the radiant coun- 
tenances and zealous activity of the officers 
and men of the Sibylle, — every omen seemed 
auspicious, and, with a fresh breeze, the frigate 
and her consorts soon made a recall impos- 
sible. 

The winter was nearly over, and what a 
dry, equable, and temperate winter it is ! com- 
parable to the same season in Egypt or Malaga. 
In six months we had rain only on six days, 
and that in partial non-tropical showers : now 
every day the sudden change of temperature 
caused by the conquest of the south-west 
monsoon over the strong breezes from the 
North was expected ; but we seemed for some 
days to be on the neutral ground, and lay 
nearly becalmed, close to the bold romantic 
shores of the island of Formosa — the Beauti- 
ful — so well named by the Portuguese. The 
aboriginal islanders are supposed to have re- 



FORMOSA. — ABORIGINES. 



5 



sisted the Chinese for centuries, and now still 
hold the mountains, leaving the lowlands on 
the western shores to their Chinese assailants : 
unconquered they descend sometimes from their 
fastnesses, and devastate the rich crops of their 
more civilised enemies. The Eastern shores 
are rocky and precipitous, and the mountains 
rise abruptly, well wooded and green, and 
with forms of magnificent outlines. 

Emerging from the China Sea, southerly 
breezes, on the Pacific, with a strong northerly 
current, gave us a rapid passage along the ever- 
beautiful coast of this great island, and the 
genial temperature, ranging from 70° to 78° 
Fahr., and the never-ceasing interest in watch- 
ing the varying sailing powers of our con- 
sorts, as the winds veered or increased, and as 
the sea rose or was calm, rendered my first 
week's cruise in a sailing vessel most agree- 
able ; indeed, for many months the pleasure 
of looking at the Hornet, with her exquisite 
form and quick sailing properties, and of 
sharing, as far as a thorough landsman might, 
the admiration of the seamen for the skill and 
readiness with which the Bittern was handled, 
never palled. The Sibylle, heavily laden with 

B 3 



6 



BRILLIANT AEROLITE. 



six months' provisions, and with as much 
powder and shot as she could carry, stagger- 
ing under all sail before the wind, could only 
keep in advance by her consorts " giving her " 
royals, and often top-gallant sails likewise. 

On the 16th, at twenty -two minutes past 
seven o'clock, the largest and most brilliant 
aerolite I have ever seen, very bright, and 
burning with a clear blue flame around a deep 
red centre, fell, or seemed to fall, between the 
Sibylle and the Hornet, which were about 400 
yards apart ; and the next time " we commu- 
nicated," we found that from the Hornet it 
seemed to have fallen near us: I never saw 
one so near to me before, nor the evidences of 
combustion so apparently sure. 

The following day we saw long low islands, 
and fancied the nearest to be Koumi, one of 
the Madjicosima group: an observation at 
noon proved the islands to be Fia-yusu and 
Hou-pin-su, eighty miles more to the north. 
Such are the currents of these seas, that even 
with a patent log overboard, and before a con- 
stant breeze, the want of a couple of daily 
observations must throw great uncertainty on 
the whereabouts of a ship ; and every one 



CURRENT CHARTS NEEDED.— -FOGS. — COLD. 7 

must wish "God speed" to Lieut. Maury, 
of the U. S. Navy, in his persevering arid 
enlightened endeavours to procure good ob- 
servations on which to found a more perfect 
system of current charts. 

In the afternoon a vessel was seen crossing 
our path, at a great distance ; it was " made 
out " an American man-of-war, and was con- 
jectured to be the Yincennes, en route to the 
Loo-Choo Islands, which group she was to 
survey: the only other ship yet seen at sea 
was an American clipper, which amused itself 
by keeping near us for some hours on the 
11th, and showing off her paces to the over- 
loaded Sibylle. 

Continuing to run before light southerly 
breezes, we ascertained that the temperature 
of the sea was gradually getting much cooler 
than that of the air, already somewhat raised by 
the southerly winds ; and on the 1 9th we ran 
into the first of the long series of fogs which 
were to accompany our northern progress. 

The fogs chilled our temperature from a 
range of 70° to 78° Fahr. to a range of 60° to 
66°, the latter height being generally attained 
at noon for many days. The change from the 

B i 



8 



STRAITS OF COREA. 



clear pure air of the tropics did not seem to 
affect the health of the crew, to which, from 
the habits of seamen, nothing seems more ob- 
noxious than a continuance of damp or wet 
weather. We lost sight of our consorts, and 
for a few days were dependent on gongs, bells, 
bugles, and occasional guns for keeping to- 
gether ; a glimpse once or twice a day a] so 
aiding the performance of this necessary duty, 
which was made more difficult by frequent 
calms of short duration. 

On the 22nd the Gotto islands and rocks 
were in sight ; and, as we still continued to 
steer northwards, the eager desire of seeing 
Nagasaki, which we supposed was to be our 
first port, very soon merged into the greater 
pleasure of there being less delay in our ad- 
vance. 

The air became much cooler and clearer as 
we approached the Straits of Corea ; and, in 
consonance with the weather, the first whale 
ship was seen on the same day ; and henceforth 
the eye seldom rested on the water without 
a searching glance for the traces or spouting 
of the hotly and far pursued monster of the 
deep. 



JAPANESE ISLAND. 



9 



A heavy squall at night raised an angry sea, 
with most phosphorescently illuminated waves. 
The whole break of the wave consisted of 
bright sparkling spangles, which seemed to 
shine, even after the subsidence of the wave, 
through the foamy surface. 

A light northerly wind, " breathing whence 
it stole those 4 icy 1 sweets," baffled our efforts 
to get through the Straits on the 23rd. We 
endeavoured to pass between the island of 
Tsu-sima (sima means island in the Japanese 
language, and may, therefore, in future stand 
for its English synonyme) and the peninsula 
of Corea ; the breeze almost died, and we 
drifted slowly past the green, fertile, hilly 
island, cultivated in terraces to the crests of 
the hills, and which, as the first Japanese 
scene we had looked on, riveted our attention. 
Though we were too distant to see the ves- 
ture or bearing of the inhabitants, still their 
thatched cottages and fishing-stations had the 
appearance of civilisation and some look of 
comfort. 

In the afternoon my host and I were read- 
ing in the cabin, when a cry was heard from 
the deck, with a rushing of feet, and the pecu- 



10 



MAN OVERBOARD. 



liar sounds of ropes running fast through 
blocks and off cleats. I, turning, rose to go 
on deck ; saw my friend in the act of ridding 
himself of his jacket, and lowering the sash of 
the stern window preparatory to going out of 
it. He had not said a word. In a moment 
we saw the life-buoy floating away from the 
ship ; yet no one was to be seen in the water. 
Whilst he was thus resting for a second ready 
to spring as soon as a sight of a man was ob- 
tained, we heard from the deck that " two 
were swimming," and on getting there saw 
the man who had fallen, and a shipmate who 
had jumped overboard, swimming with ease 
to the buoy. They happened to be both good 
swimmers ; and, as the day was not cold, they 
did not suffer any inconvenience. 

The modesty and resolution of the com- 
modore's character struck me much to-day, 
though I had read the record of his noble 
daring some months previously at Singapore, 
where, in a harbour infested by sharks, on 
hearing the same cry, he at once leapt from 
his cabin window and saved the life of a fine 
young seaman who could not swim. I feel 
that my allusion to these circumstances will 



"KATES OF SAILING." — DEAD WHALE. 11 



pain him, but it is a pleasure I cannot refuse 
myself. 

The subsequent day, before a fresh southerly 
wind, we ran into the sea of Japan ; and as it 
was clear, because cold, weather, our consorts 
and the Sibylle tried their rates of sailing 
under the unfavourable circumstances of over- 
loading for the frigate, though so far favour- 
able for Symonite brig and frigate, inasmuch 
as the sea was smooth : in twelve hours the 
Bittern had gained six miles and the Hornet 
two. 

The thermometer daily sank, the range now 
being from 48° to 60°, with cuttingly cold wind, 
especially at night. The barometer astonished 
us by rising for southerly winds, which, how- 
ever, we subsequently thought accounted for 
by finding that it blew from this quarter 
almost as constantly as a monsoon, and 
brought heat to these lands covered with 
snow for many months. On the 26th we saw 
an American whale ship cruising under easy 
sail, and a large dead whale floated by us, 
covered with birds of ill looks, and tainting 
the breeze for many minutes. 

We had seen nothing of the shores of Japan 



12 



STRAITS OF SANGAR. 



since leaving Tsu-sima. Shortly after midnight 
on the 27th we found ourselves near high land, 
which at daylight proved to be Cape Greig, a 
bold rocky projection from the bluffs on the 
north-west coast of the island of Nipon. We 
ran still before a southerly breeze until we en- 
tered the Straits of Sangar, where we met light 
airs, and through mist and fog discovered 
traces of hills, and lofty mountains covered 
with snow. On the northern island of Yezo, 
and on both sides of the rapid strait, headlands 
and mountains peered above the fog : the icy 
wind seemed to blow through our tropically 
roasted frames ; but Japan — the mysterious, 
the inhospitable — was before us; and, as we 
entered the capacious harbour of Hakodadi, 
so many new and strange objects met the eye, 
that the fine mountain scenery around us was 
barely glanced at. We delightedly heard the 
anchor drop at noon on the 29th, and anxi- 
ously awaited the arrival of the Japanese 
officials. 



13 



CHAP. II. 

Description of the Harbour of Hakodadi. — Fine Mountain 
Scenery.— Extinct Volcano. — Numerous Fishing-Boats. — 
Train of Ponies carrying Merchandise. — Japanese hill no 
Animals. — Exemplified by Tameness of Sea-Gulls and Wild 
Ducks. — Astonishment expressed by Japanese on being 
asked for Beef. — Visit of Harbour-Master. — Description 
of his Boat. — Ensign of the official Position of Occupier. — 
Astonishment of Japanese at the Appearance of the Inter- 
preters addressing them in pure Japanese. — Demand for 
Provisions. — Refusal to give Meat. — Prostration before 
Superiors. — Visit from the Lieut.- Governor. — Conversa- 
tion. — Interview with the Harbour-Master. — Forms of 
Ceremonial. — Description of the Harbour-Master's Office. 
— Walk through the Town. — Difficulties thrown in the way 
of seeing the People. — Japanese Women. — Bazaars ar- 
ranged. — The Objects exposed. — Description of the Town. 
— Bhuddist Temple. — Manage to get rid of Police Es- 
cort. — Gales of Wind. — Estimation of Merchants. — 
Another Visit from Harbour Master. — Vessel seen. — 
Suspected to be Russian. — Visit to the Governor. — 
Appearance of high Officials. — Description of the Palace- 
temple of Governor. — Ceremonies. — Dignity of Governor. — 
Conversation. — Refreshments. — Interview shortened by 
Report of another strange Sail. — False Alarm. — Take long 
Walk in the Environs of Hakodadi. — Visit Bazaar. — Diffi- 
culties of Exchange. — Efforts to get Swords. — Their 
supposed good Temper. — Walk to neighbouring Hamlets. — 
Civilities of District Headman. — Settle Accounts with 
Harbour-Master and Merchants. — Sail from Hakodadi. 



Before our anxiously expected visitors come, 
let us look around us for a few minutes. The 



14 



HARBOUR OF HAKODAPI. 



ship lies in a noble bay, a segment of a circle 
four miles broad east and west, and five deep 
north and south. To the southward, narrowing 
the entrance to a width of two miles, stretches 
a rocky, hilly peninsula, forming a semi-chord 
to the arc ; the face of the peninsula turned 
to us, slopes steeply to the bay, and along its 
lower levels the houses of the town of Hako- 
dadi are built ; above them green hill-sides, 
with belts of pine and beech, dotted with 
gardens and temples, rise to peaks of various 
elevations, the highest being about 1200 feet. 
This peninsula is connected by a long and nar- 
row sandy isthmus to the island. 

Following the curve of the shore, a narrow 
space of level ground, planted, cultivated, and 
sprinkled thickly with villages, hamlets, and 
farms embowered each in trees, separates the 
finely swelling and rich uplands from the sea ; 
whilst ridges of hills, and the bold outlines of 
mountains, rise above each other in grander 
magnitudes and nobler dimensions ; and fur- 
ther and higher, solitarily, and towering in 
snow-clad majesty above all, rises the sublime 
peak of an extinct volcano. 

Fishing-boats line the shore, or with white 



JAPANESE DO NOT KILL ANIMALS. 15 

sails are specking the deep blue of the wide 
straits ; trains of ponies carrying produce and 
merchandise are crossing each other on the 
numerous roads leading to the town ; herds of 
small bullocks are feeding on the lower lands ; 
and, rarer sight still, around us on the water, 
above us on the yards, or close alongside the 
frigate, quietly repose sea-gulls : never injured 
by man, they fearlessly approach the large 
ship, and expect and dread no harm. 

I was much struck by this corroboration 
of the assertion that the Japanese kill no 
animals: unhappily, their code deals not so 
humanely with man ; and human life seems as 
little venerated in Japan, as animal life is in 
more civilised countries. How they reconcile 
with this law, the immense and wholesale de- 
struction of salmon and herring, and other fish, 
which, dried, salted, or fresh, forms with rice 
the principal nourishment of all classes, I never 
could get explained ; a very " human " incon- 
sistency, which I never had the courage to 
urge in mitigation of their well-bred expres- 
sions of astonishment when bullocks were 
demanded as necessaries of life : these de- 
mands were first met by doubts of their 



16 VISIT OF THE HARBOUR-MASTER. 

understanding us, and then by gently hinted 
horror at such cannibalism. 

I felt ashamed; I suppose Thomson's lines 
had once run through my head, and left some 
half-regrets behind. 

" He whose toil, 
Patient and ever ready, clothes the land 
With all the pomp of harvest; shall he bleed, 
And struggling groan beneath the cruel hands 
Even of the clown he feeds ! " 

Or rather, as this was nearly the identical 
reasoning of the Japanese, the lines recurred 
on hunting for them. 

Soon after the ships had come to anchor, a 
boat was seen pulling away from the shore, 
and presently the wild and rough notes of the 
men labouring at the oars riveted our atten- 
tion on a long, low, sharp-prowed boat, pro- 
pelled by six men standing to their oars and 
using them as a single oar in a punt is 
worked by us ; a long spear, with its steel 
head covered with leather, was held erect in 
the prow, indicative of the rank and official 
dignity of our visitor. Amidst much bustle 
and noise the boatmen got alongside the 



APPEARANCE OF JAPANESE OFFICIALS. 17 

frigate, and four officials climbed up the sides 
and presented themselves on the deck. 

Short, dark, with small black eyes, oblique 
a la Chinoise, with high cheek bones, and 
somewhat flattened noses, and protruding 
lips, they were not unlike Chinamen : their 
forms were more robust, and clothed in 
several robes of cotton and silk, resembling 
dressing-gowns, except that the lower por- 
tions of their dresses were merged within 
silken petticoat -trowsers : their feet were en- 
cased in cloth or woollen socks, closely fitting, 
and with separate fingers for the great digits, 
and stood in straw shoes, fastened classically 
by thongs of white rope or twisted straw : a 
large silken sash round the loins, in which 
were placed the greater and lesser swords, for 
murder or suicide, as required, completed 
their costumes. The head also is not adorned 
quite a la Chinoise ; for the whole front of the 
head is not shaven, only the top, having the 
hair long at the sides and back, which being 
gathered together is made into a queue, 
stiffened with grease and ointment, and 
turned back so as to lie upon the bare top of 
the head. 

c 



18 INTERVIEW WITH HARBOUR-MASTER. 

The Japanese, whom the commodore had 
brought with him from the newspaper printing 
office at Hong Kong, requested the officials to 
walk down to the cabin, and they could not 
conceal their astonishment at being addressed 
in their own tongue, by a man to all appear- 
ance to them an European, for our interpreter 
was not very Japanese in look, but rather 
more like a Manilla-man, or an In do- Spa- 
niard. 

On being seated, one of the officials, speak- 
ing in very tolerable English, announced that 
the great man present was the harbour-master 
of Hakodadi ; and he presented a copy of the 
port regulations in Dutch and Japanese, and 
demanded the names, tonnage, nags, and com- 
plements of the crews of the three ships. 

As each question and reply was made, two 
of the officials (having produced from the 
folds of their robes rolls of paper and taken 
from their girdles the pendant cases resem- 
bling spectacle cases, which contain their reed 
pencils and ink) minutely, and evidently 
word by word, took them down. 

This port's regulations had been framed in 
accordance with the provisions of the American 



"ILLUSTRATED NEWS." — JAPANESE REMARKS. 19 

treaty, Hakodadi having been one of the 
ports chosen by that power and opened by 
it to the rest of the Western World. 

Whilst the necessary translation of these 
regulations was in progress between the two 
interpreters, — for ours could not read his native 
language when written, — mutual examinations 
of dress and manners silently passed on both 
sides. Our friends were not much at their 
ease, seated on sofas or chairs ; and with 
rounded backs, bent heads, and downcast 
eyes, and occasional furtive glances from the 
corners of their eyes, they looked incarnations 
of cunning and curiosity ; if by chance their 
eyes met ours, their looks were instantly 
thrown down. 

As this situation of things was uncomfort- 
able, I took from the table some numbers of 
the " Illustrated London News," and tried to 
interest the worthy harbour-master in them. 
They puzzled him, however, excessively, until 
some sketches of last year's proceedings at 
Nagasaki arrested his glance ; when, losing a 
little of the intense solemnity incumbent on 
a Japanese authority in the exercise of his 
functions, he called the attention of the secre- 
c 2 



20 JAPANESE DUTCH INTERPRETERS. 

taries or spies; and all three soon gathered 
round the tables in animated discussion on 
the likenesses exhibited in the illustrations. 
Explanations were then demanded, and our 
interpreter's aid called in. 

I took the opportunity of conversing with 
the other interpreter, and found that since 
the signing of the American treaty several of 
the Japanese Dutch interpreters had been re- 
quired by their government to learn English, 
and my informant, having been one of the 
quickest learners, had received the post of 
chief interpreter at Hakodadi. In truth, he 
appeared to possess greater intelligence than 
his superiors, and was most anxious to master 
the English language. I offered him some 
books, which he at first accepted with thanks ; 
but subsequently, as I spoke of it again before 
the others, he declined to take them until he 
had received the permission of the governor. 

When the illustrations had received what 
our friends deemed sufficient attention, they 
returned them with an inclination of the head 
and reseated themselves, as if ready to hear 
what the commodore had to say. " Water, 
vegetables, fruits, fresh meat, eggs, and fish," 



FRESH MEAT. — SAUCERS EOR TEA-CUPS. 21 

were the objects first requested. The subject 
of fresh meat required several elucidatory 
questions and answers, doubts of the meaning 
of the demand being followed by exchanged 
glances of half- suppressed astonishment, and 
terminating in the enunciation of the law of 
the empire, which forbids killing animals. 
With respect to the other demands, the har- 
bour-master said that he would make an ex- 
amination of the means that the merchants 
and fishermen had of supplying them. 

He also seemed anxious to know for what 
purpose the ships had come, where they were 
going to, and how long they were to remain. 
These questions were put in different words 
and were several times repeated. 

Tea was then handed round ; the sugar ap- 
parently drew forth remarks of approbation. 
The saucers, however, being below instead of 
above the cup, a la Japonnaise, were embar- 
rassing, and the spoons added to their diffi- 
culties. On resuming conversation, the com- 
modore proposed paying his respects to the 
governor, and asked the harbour-master to 
convey his wish to do so. The official replied 

that he would do so immediately, and that a 

c 3 



22 PROSTRATION BEFORE SUPERIORS. 

reply should be sent the following day. The 
commodore expressed the pleasure he had felt 
in receiving the harbour- master on board, who 
courteously thanked him, and bowing, retired 
with his retinue. 

During this interview, the Japanese boat- 
men had got on board, and were found on 
deck by the officials ; they instantly sank on 
their knees, prostrating their bodies till their 
foreheads touched the deck, and so remained 
until sharply motioned to their boat : in the 
same posture the dignitary was received on 
entering his boat ; as soon as he was seated, 
up the men rose, and recommencing their 
shrill cries and pulling at their oars, steered 
to the shore. 

The next morning, a bright sun shining and 
a cold north-easterly wind blowing over the 
snow-covered mountains, a procession of boats 
was seen leaving the trading wharfs, with 
numerous spears at the bows, and the black 
and white ensigns of Japan flying from several 
parts of the boats. One gondola-like barge 
with twenty oars contained, in its central 
covered cabin, some great functionary; and 
the cries of the boatmen were louder and 



VISIT OF LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR. 23 

quicker than those of the previous day. From 
the largest boat, on its getting alongside, 
stepped an elderly man with eight or nine 
other two-sworded and well-dressed indivi- 
duals, amidst the prostrated crew, and ac- 
tively went up the side. 

The commodore was on deck, and received 
his visitor there, a very benevolent-looking, 
little old man, who with great bonhommie 
returned our bows by the Japanese salutation 
of pressing the closed hands to each other on 
the breast and bowing slightly at the same 
time. It was the lieutenant-governor, sent 
by the governor as the bearer of compliments 
and a message. He and his suite were con- 
ducted below, and four Japanese seated them- 
selves, the remainder not being of sufficient 
dignity to sit in the presence of the lieu- 
tenant-governor. The cunning countenance of 
the harbour-master was immediately recog- 
nised amongst the sitters ; and apparently 
he was the lowest in rank. In dress there 
seems to be no mark of rank, — all the 
superior officials being well dressed in silks 
and gauzes, each bearing his own crest em- 
broidered on his robes, except domestic offi- 

c 4 



24 



CONVERSATION WITH 



cers, who use the crests of their lords, — for 
feudality is the law of Japan. 

Two interpreters accompanied the lieu- 
tenant-governor, through whom, — speaking to 
them in low tones, which were listened to in 
attitudes of humblest respect, — he expressed 
"his hopes that the commodore and ships were 
well;" and through his own interpreter the 
commodore's part of the following colloquy was 
played. "Very well, — thank the lieutenant- 
governor for his politeness."—" The crews have 
had a very long voyage." " Yes." — " How many 
days?" " Twenty-one." — " The lieutenant- 
governor is glad to see the commodore." 
" The commodore is glad to receive the lieu- 
tenant-governor." — "The officers and men 
may go on shore in small parties, landing at 
the harbour-master's wharf." "We shall avail 
ourselves of the permission." — " No tipsy 
sailors are to go on shore." " If sailors get 
tipsy, the police may bring them off." — " The 
governor has been lately appointed, and only 
arrived with all the necessary officers some 
days ago. He has no house yet, as Hako- 
dadi was formerly only a small place under 
the Prince of Matsmai, and only lately made 



THE LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR. 



25 



an imperial city. Perhaps the commodore 
would not object to be received in a temple?" 
" I shall be happy to wait upon the governor 
in anyplace he pleases to appoint." — " Has the 
commodore any children on board?" "None; 
he is not married." — " Has the commodore 
come in place of the admiral?" "No." — "What 
is the difference of rank ?" " The Admiral gives 
his orders to commodore." The worthy old 
gentleman then gave us a Japanese version of 
the earthquake at Simoda, and of the sub- 
sequent loss of the Diana : he said nothing of 
the whereabouts of the unfortunate wrecked 
ship (Kussian), and turned from the sub- 
ject when he found it was listened to, perhaps 
too attentively to lead him on ; although, 
I imagine, diplomatic tact and talents are 
common enough in Japan, governed through 
spies by an ultra-Venetian oligarchy. 

The merry old man preferred sweet wine 
to good tea and white sugar, — a taste, I pre- 
sume, creditable to his metier, which we sub- 
sequently heard was that of a general. He was 
shown the noble maindeck and guns of the 
Sibylle, and appeared to understand the use 
of guns and small-arms. Whenever he ap- 



26 



FORMS OF CEREMONIAL. 



peared, down went his countrymen on their 
knees with bent heads ; and he made his exit 
from the ship, after paying many compliments 
to the commodore, amidst a lane of prostrated 
officials. 

Casks of water soon began to be received 
on board from the water-boats, and the decks 
of the ship were animated by groups of one- 
robed and non-trowsered boatmen, with 
sprinklings of inferior two-sworded officials 
with petticoats, — pantelets of silk or satin; 
each class was to be seen in every part of the 
ship, and Jack's curiosity had every means of 
gratification. 

In the afternoon, the commodore and two 
commanders went ashore, landing at the pier 
indicated as the proper landing-place. The 
steps and pier were formed of cut stone, unce- 
mented and unmortared, and were very credi- 
table specimens of the building art. We were 
received by several officials, and conducted to 
an adjoining house, where we saw the harbour- 
master with two assistants, sitting with dig- 
nified discomfort on stools, and we were 
motioned to a wooden bench en face. Tea 
was handed round after a few compliments ; 



harbour-master's office, 



27 



it was very weak, hot, and much inferior to 
that of China. The room in which we sat 
had been reached by ascending a flight of 
half a dozen wooden steps, which extend in 
front of the building, and lead to a verandah, 
retired from which stood the room; it was 
about twenty feet long by twelve wide, and 
formed by heavy wooden pillars and connected 
panels, which on two sides were moveable, — 
a plan enabling several rooms to form one, if 
required : and this room, small as it was, had 
been enlarged by the withdrawal of panels 
across its length. The windows are formed 
by light frames of wood, into which pieces of 
thin white-brown paper are placed instead of 
glass, being battened on the inside of the 
house; whilst outside similar frames with deal 
panes are placed. In rainy or windy weather 
the external windows are closed, and light 
only enters from the verandah. The ceilings 
were formed of thin deal, and were about ten 
feet high ; the floors were covered with mats 
two deep, on which a Japanese never treads 
with his shoes on, but deposits them in the 
verandah. 

We had a little conversation about the 



28 



WALK THROUGH THE TOWN. 



interview with the governor, and a rough 
plan of a temple was shown us, on which 
were marked the places to be occupied by the 
visitors and the visited r and by the guards 
and troops of both ; it was nicely and clearly 
drawn on thin paper. 

We were anxious to get at once into the 
town, and therefore closed our interview as 
speedily as possible, and bowed ourselves out. 
The outside was thronged by a multitude of 
brown forms with eager curious eyes, their 
figures only half covered by their robes of 
cotton, and their heads crowned by their 
squirrel-like tails. The chief object of curi- 
osity was our interpreter. That he should be 
dressed like us, and yet talk to them, seemed 
to the populace the wonder of wonders : they 
touched his clothes; inquired as to their ma- 
terial, manufacture, and use ; and caught the 
ends of his silk tie, and again and again 
demanded its object; and when informed of it, 
their hilarity was unbounded. Their own robes 
leave the neck and half the breast bare ; yet 
that would not account for the perpetual jokes 
afterwards ever ready to spring on the sight 
of the neckerchief. Hanging is, I believe, un- 



DIFFICULTY OF SEEING INHABITANTS. 29 

known to them, — a sword and decapitation 
being the remedies of Japanese justice. The 
only solution our interpreter ever deigned to 
give was, that his countrymen were foolish. 

When we had pushed through this crowd 
and beyond the wooden palings of the custom- 
house grounds, we saw a wide long street 
stretching to our right and left, and police- 
men busy making signs to the people to close 
their doors and windows; and as we strolled 
on, turn which way we would, policemen 
were to be seen in front of us motioning to 
all to get out of sight. A cortege of the same 
useful body accompanied us in the van, at 
our sides, and in our rear. They were civil 
as possible to us, though evidently threaten- 
ing their fellow-citizens in cases where dis- 
obedient curiosity got the better of the deep 
respect for authority so well inoculated into 
the Japanese system. An occasional rapid 
turn round enabled us to catch a view of the 
groups re-issuing from their houses after we 
had passed; and as the police did not object to 
this manner of breaking the municipal order 
of the day, as long as we obeyed the letter, 
they connived at our evading it most effect u- 



30 



JAPANESE WOMEN. 



ally, and I thus bad an opportunity for 
recording my first impressions of the Japanese 
fair. 

Just arrived from the tropics, the ruddy, 
too ruddy cheeks, red lips, and eyes bright 
with health, struck me most ; the face and 
features are rather too Mongolian ; their forms 
are full and tall, the skin fair ; small uncom- 
pressed stockingless feet, and luxuriant hair, 
and white and even teeth, complete the number 
of the charms of the young and unmarried : the 
married blacken their teeth, and destroy other 
charms most ruthlessly, which I at first 
imagined proceeded from the jealousy of their 
lords, but subsequently hearing that a man's 
momentary dislike permits him to send away 
his wife, and that Japanese dames may vie 
in renown with the buried matrons of re- 
publican Rome, I was at a loss to guess a 
cause, until I incidentally heard that any 
official seeing a pretty woman married to an 
inferior, and wishing it, may take her to his 
home as an additional wife. I hope that 
neither of these causes of divorce are common ; 
indeed my walks in the country led me 
eventually to think that they are not usual, 



TEMPLE USED AS BAZAAR. ITS GARDEN. 31 

as I saw rosy blooming children rushing out 
of almost every cottage door. 

The police showed us a temple, in one of 
the outhouses of which were ranged such 
articles as the shopkeepers thought we would 
be most naturally tempted to buy; lacquer 
ware, of purest and rarest colours, china, tran- 
sparent and light as wine-biscuit, curious 
and quaint old jars, little cabinets of perfect 
lacquer, fans, silks, and gauzes, were exposed 
to view ; and we promised ourselves early and 
frequent visits to the bazaar, where, as we 
were assured, still rarer specimens of Japanese 
industry would be produced : the temple was 
an old Buddhist fane, with some very fine 
alto-relievo carvings in wood, but less rich 
and grotesquely elaborate than the Buddhist 
temples of China. 

We passed into the garden, where, into a 
space eighty feet by fifty, were crowded 
dwarfed trees of numerous kinds, rocks, 
streams, paths, bridges, ponds, and flowers: 
the effect was pleasing, from a rude harmony 
which reigned in the arrangements of this 
childish pleasure-ground ; and it evidently 
afforded relief and delight to the old priests 



32 STREETS, HOUSES, AND SHOPS. 

who live in the temple. We saw the dwarf 
plum, peach, and pear in blossom, and bearing 
very large blossoms. It is these little plea- 
saunces attached to so many houses, and their 
being generally built on the slopes of hills, 
that give a peculiar charm to the appearance 
of Japanese towns, when seen from the sea.. 

The streets of Hakodadi are regular, wide, 
and clean ; the houses are the quaintest things 
that ever haunted a builder's dreams ; the 
frames are of squared timber posts, connected 
by laths of pine, and covered or sheeted with 
fragments of birch bark ; the gables are 
generally towards the street, and have rustic 
verandahs in front, and often have a small 
loft above the low ceiling of the principal 
rooms, or, more frequently, room : the roof is 
constructed of light rafters of fir, over which 
pieces of bark are laid ; and the roof and house 
look as if kept in their sites by the large stones 
placed on each piece of bark on the roof ; — a 
lighted straw, or a gale of wind, and all must 
vanish, one thinks ! A large proportion of the 
houses are shops, amongst which those of the 
fishmongers' fraternity are the best supplied 
and most numerous ; and where butchers and 



PONIES. — BULLOCKS. — DOGS. 



33 



poulterers are unknown, I presume they are 
the first tradesmen. Soles, mackerel, trout, 
and grilse were exhibited in not uncleanly 
guise: at the fruiterers', pears, large as 
turnips, and watery and tasteless; beans, peas, 
tomatos, sweet potatoes, radish, and carrots, 
were the things in season. We also " assisted " 
at the manufacture of a plough at the black- 
smith's, and saw the result — -a large bifurcated 
spade. 

In the middle of the streets were strings of 
ponies, awaiting the loading of their packs; 
they were hardy little creatures of thirteen or 
fourteen hands, badly shaped, goose-quartered, 
and cat-hammed, and of a dirty yellow ches- 
nut colour, with large coarse heads. Small thin 
bullocks were likewise standing in the middle 
of the street for sale, as teams for the plough, 
I believe. 

To the dogs, to the natives a quiet and 
sleepy race, we were always objects of curio- 
sity, mingled with dread : as soon as they 
saw a European dress, they would utter most 
dismal howlings, and fly as the suspected 
enemy approached them. They are of a large 
size, often white, and bore resemblance to 

D 



34 



BUDDHIST TEMPLE. 



both the Esquimaux dog and the wolf. Neither 
sheep nor goats were to be seen. 

On the edge of a plateau just overlooking 
the town, and about 100 feet above the sea, a 
small Bhuddist temple tempted us to visit it. 
It was a wooden building, with fantastic 
figures elaborated on every projecting beam or 
post, strongly framed, and with very fine 
carvings on the pillars and girders. Japanese 
birds and beasts of nearly the size of life were 
mixed with the extraordinary creations of the 
artist's brains. Before the altar stood large 
jars of the peculiar bronze of Japan, in which 
votive sticks of a fragrant compound, or 
lighted twisted papers, were placed. Daylight 
only entered the edifice by the front and rear 
verandahs ; and, as the wooden pillars and 
beams were dark and polished, there was an 
air of solemnity within its quiet precincts 
which increased as our footsteps passed noise- 
lessly over the well-matted floor. These mats 
are made of very fine whitish straw, and are 
six feet long and three wide, and a little more 
than an inch thick ; so that, when placed two 
deep, as they are in the temples and in the 
houses of the wealthy, they assist in producing 



POLICE TIRED OUT. 



35 



the quietude so agreeable to Japanese ideas of 
refinement. 

Our escort of police, which had been re- 
lieved as often as we passed into each succes- 
sive ward that the town is divided into, now 
begun to show signs of our having taken them 
far enough for our first walk, and on our 
emergence from the temple evidently wished 
us to descend. The numerous gravestones 
around, however, requiring some explanation, 
we loitered amongst them, and ascertained 
that the spot was sacred to the spirit of the 
hill above us, and that several stone and 
wooden tablets in the garden were propitia- 
tory offerings. 

To climb the peaks of the hilly peninsula 
rising above us, and the green steep slopes 
leading to them, was an irresistible temptation 
after our three weeks' confinement on board 
the frigate ; so, instead of descending, we 
began to ascend the steep path which led to 
the highest point. The police at first laughed 
and shook their heads, or pointed below. We 
slowly continued to rise, and the stouter por- 
tion of the escort stopped to breathe : the re- 
mainder, as we went on, laughed less, and 

D 2 



36 ASCENT OF THE HILL — SCULPTURE. 

pointed to their legs and then to the hill. 
This was intelligible enough information that 
we should be soon left alone ; and every fifty- 
feet we ascended we shook off some attend- 
ants, until, when we had reached about half- 
way, we turned round and saw that there was 
not a Japanese near us. The fragments of the 
escort were below in different groups, and in 
one of them we discovered the portly form and 
laughing countenance of one of our compa- 
nions. 

We then left the path made by or for the 
pony chargers of the Japanese officers, and 
scrambled up the sides of the hill. The late 
ruins had rendered the black rich soil so slip- 
pery that our hands were actively employed in 
laying hold of the shrubs and bushes, growing, 
in great profusion, amidst luxuriant beds of 
wild strawberries and violets, and clusters of 
jonquils and blue-bells. 

In less than half an hour we gained the 
crest, about 1150 feet above the sea, termina- 
ting in a very small circular knoll, from 
which rose a large block of granite, nearly six 
feet high, on which, in basso relievo, were 
sculptured a Mother and Child ; and the stone 



VIEW FROM CHEST OF HILL. 



37 



was so cut as to curve its highest edge over 
the images below. I subsequently inquired 
its history of our interpreter, without obtain- 
ing it ; for he did not easily yield it even in 
commoner cases. 

The views from the knoll embraced the 
Straits of Sangar, from the Japan Sea to the 
north-east cape of Niphon, past which the 
huge waves of the Pacific were driven by the 
strong east wind against the rapid current of 
the straits, until they broke in a wild surf on 
the sandy isthmus below us. On every side 
high mountains rose, but none could compete 
in beauty with the lofty volcanic peak seen 
beyond the bay : all the heights were crowned 
by snow ; and the keen air, the bright sun, 
the clear blue sky, and dazzling surface of the 
water, recalled one of the brilliant and cold 
spring mornings of Canada. 

In the ravines of this seven-hilled peninsula 
small woods of cedar and fir, or more wintry 
leaveless beech, elm, and oak, invited us to 
descend by a different path, and in a few 
minutes we reached a clump of beech and 
pear, the latter in full blossom. A pleasant 
rural stroll along the rough road, used to 

D 3 



38 



HEALTHY POPULATION. 



carry timber on, brought us, by gradual 
descents, near the neck of the isthmus ; and 
for some minutes we perambulated the re- 
moter streets without meeting policemen. No 
sooner, however, had we reached the main 
street, which runs for a mile parallel and 
close to the sea, than we were joined by two 
two-sworded officials, who gradually collected 
more of their brotherhood. 

It was very pleasing to trace in the rosy 
cheeks and robust figures and merry counte- 
nances of the lower orders the signs of a con- 
tented life, and to observe the scarcity of 
cripples and the absence of beggars. There 
was one unhappy exception to the generally 
healthy state of the people, which was, that a 
large proportion seemed to suffer from some 
complaint in the eyes, and not a few had lost 
the sight of one eye. This was more com- 
mon amongst the lower officials, whose re- 
puted disorderly lives may, perhaps, account 
for it. 

At intervals along the main street there are 
houses of some pretension on cut stone foun- 
dations, built of earth and very thick, and 
covered with cement : the gables are pre- 



FIRE-PKOOE STOKEIIOUSES. 



39 



sented to the street, and the windows are 
closed with iron plates and secured by iron 
bars. These turned out to be storehouses, in 
which merchants and shopkeepers keep almost 
all their fine goods, retaining specimens alone 
in their shops. Fires seem to be well guarded 
against : each house-top shows an array of 
water jars : there are also small tanks at short 
intervals, and numerous wells. 

We extended our walk to the western ex- 
tremity of the town and point of the penin- 
sula, and arrived in time to see the sunset 
guard mounted by an elderly gentleman, 
shuffling along in the pace common to the 
Japanese when wearing shoes. The troops 
fell in ; and, as the officer approached, they 
dropped down to the demi-prostration posture, 
— a very bearish reverence, accomplished by 
bending the head and shoulders down until 
the hands of the extended arms, elbows in 
front, touch the foot : this salute returned by 
a prostration of less humble character, officer 
and men shufEed away into the house. 

The waning daylight warned us to go on 
board ; and after a few minutes' sail we soon, 
with sharpened appetites, sat down before 

D 4 



40 



GALES OF WIND. 



fresh salmon and other delicacies at the table 
of the very hospitable officers of the frigate. 

The fresh easterly breeze that had blown 
during the day increased as night came, and 
in the morning it was whistling and crying 
through the shrouds and ropes. The baro- 
meter had sunk in the interval from 29*8° to 
29*2°, and the thermometer stood at 48°. A 
second anchor was let go, and the topgallant 
yards sent down. The shore, only a mile 
distant, rose indistinctly through the thick 
mist ; and, as the gale gathered strength, we 
could not avoid thinking of the fragile build- 
ings of the town and of their probable fate. 
All idea of visiting the governor was aban- 
doned, as a heavy sea was rolling in from the 
western entrance to the straits, towards which 
point the gale gradually veered, settling at 
night at north-west, and coming in violent 
squalls from the high mountains around us. 
The following day, the 1st of May, the gale 
gradually died away in strong and short puffs ; 
and we saw the uplands covered with snow, 
and hills, woods, and sea with wintry aspects : 
the icy wind was trying to those who, like me, 
had been three years in the tropics ; and 



PRESENT FROM THE GOVERNOR. 41 

although we declared that it was a fine 
bracing climate, we all looked as if we dis- 
liked it. 

A little before noon a boat was reported as 
coming to the frigate from the shore, and the 
chief secretary and an interpreter were an- 
nounced in a few minutes. The secretary 
presented a basket of fish with the governor's 
compliments, and expressed his Excellency's 
regrets that the state of the weather had pre- 
vented the intended reception, and his hopes 
that if the next day was fine the commodore 
would pay him a visit. The secretary again 
requested information as to the number and 
rank of the officers who were to accompany 
the commodore, and as to the description of 
the escort ; and did not, like our own inter- 
preter, quite understand the object of the 
characteristic simplicity of the arrangements 
suggested by my friend. 

These being settled, the officials opened 
their pipe cases and commenced a compensa- 
tory smoking ; and the invariably customary 
cups of tea were handed round, followed by 
wine and biscuits, which were duly appre- 
ciated. The secretary inveighed against the 



42 



JAPANESE CHART. 



inclemency of the climate of Yesso, and its 
dreary, uncultivated appearance ; and la- 
mented his exile from Yeddo, which he had 
quitted a few weeks, and where in the depth 
of winter two silk robes were sufficient to 
exclude cold, whilst he was at the moment, in 
May, clothed in five, and was still cold. The 
sea was rough and the Sibylle rolled well, as 
she always does in similar cases : the secretary 
grew paler every moment, and at last re- 
quested to be allowed to withdraw into the 
inner cabin. 

The interpreter, left alone, became at once 
more communicative, and unrolling a chart of 
Sagalien, which had been previously placed 
before him, pointed out the track of a voyage 
he had lately taken to Aniwa Bay, showing 
the anchorages used every night during this 
coasting trip of twenty days. He declared 
that the southern half of the magnificent 
island of Sagalien was under Japanese rule, as 
well as the two nearer Kurile Islands : the 
remainder of both the large island and of the 
Kurile group belonging to Russia. 

Unfortunately the secretary reappeared 
quickly, and the interpreter's fluency ceased. 



MERCATOK'S CHART IN JAPANESE. 43 

As the charts stifl were visible on the table, 
the secretary's amour propre was touched, and 
he produced from the folds of his robes a copy 
of a Mercator's chart of the world with the 
names in Japanese. He, with some vanity in 
his knowledge, pointed to England and her 
possessions in different parts of the map, 
showed the two routes home from China, 
talked of America and the Panama Railway, 
and laid his finger on France and Russia. He 
seemed to take a pleasurable interest in the 
comparison of the relative positions and ex- 
tent of the Britannic and Japanese Isles, and 
listened with attentive pride to some remarks 
on the configuration of his country, bounded 
by great lines of sea coast, indented by nu- 
merous and capacious bays and harbours, and 
inhabited by a race of hardy fishermen. He 
had heard of the rebellion in China, and asked 
many questions as to its origin and progress, 
but did not betray any sensitiveness to the 
religious ingredient in the movement. 

After some conversation on the provisioning 
of the squadron, during which appeals were 
frequently necessary to the principal native 
merchants, who entered and retired in the 



44 



ESTIMATION OF MERCHANTS. 



bear-like attitude etiquette requires, the visit- 
ors paid a few valedictory compliments and 
returned to their boat, threading their way 
along it amongst the prostrate forms of about 
fifty people ; and as soon as they were seated 
they were enveloped in waterproof paper 
coats, and covered with fine mats as defences 
against the spray of an agitated sea. 

The merchants are held in great contempt 
by Japanese authorities, and are kept in as 
great subjection as the shopkeepers, peasant 
farmers, and fishermen. They can never 
aspire to the proud position of wearing two 
swords, or of being dressed in the silken petti- 
coat ; they are, however, so far indulged as to 
be able to purchase the permission of girding 
one sword : and if the effects of these tyran- 
nical customs are often as repulsive as they 
appeared in the cunning and knavish coun- 
tenance of the merchant we saw, many years 
of free commerce will pass before this class 
can attain its proper high functions of gra- 
dually introducing the civilisation of the West 
into the country. 

Early next morning the harbour-master and 
second interpreter came on board, to say that, 



ANOTHER VISIT FROM HARBOUR-MASTER. 45 

as the day promised to be fine, the governor 
would be at the temple at noon, and would be 
ready to receive us. It was a small temple, 
and it was hoped that no more officers would 
come than the twelve originally named. His 
Excellency likewise requested that a British 
officer should visit the temple beforehand, so 
that no difficulties might occur ; and that at 
the same time any number of officers could 
see the building, and thus compensate for 
their necessary exclusion from the interview. 

The harbour-master complained that the cli- 
mate was severe, — that he had been preparing 
Hakodadi for the reception of foreign vessels 
for six months, — that the snow had lingered 
even on the lowlands from November till May, 
—that the winds were violent and piercingly 
cold, — that the houses were very bad, — and 
the country uncivilised compared with Yeddo. 

We listened to the enumeration of these 
misfortunes and condoled with the sufferer, in 
the hope that he would be equally loquacious 
on other topics. No opening, no remote hint 
to speak of the whereabouts of the Kussian 
vessels was taken advantage of, and the furtive, 
upward, or sidelong glances which intermit- 



46 



STRANGE SAIL. 



ted with his more habitual downward look, 
forbade any anticipations of success in a di- 
plomatic war with our Tartar-countenanced 
visitor, who did not remain long on board. 

A vessel was reported in sight in the fore- 
noon, and was seen to stand in close to the 
Pacific shore of the isthmus, and coming in 
to about two miles' distance from us 7 looked 
well at us over the low sands, and then show- 
ing American colours, made all sail before the 
breeze, and with the aid of a strong current 
steered to the eastward. It was thought " a 
suspicious sail," as it did not look like a 
trader and had no whale boats, and therefore 
in a few minutes the Bittern was under a 
press of sail beating out of the harbour, to 
commence a long stern chase, and the Hornet's 
steam was got up in about an hour, and away 
she likewise went in pursuit of the mysterious 
stranger. 

About noon a procession of boats, diminished 
on account of the absence of our consorts, left 
the Sibylle, and in a quarter of an hour 
ranged alongside the steps of the harbour- 
master's office. 

The commodore and eight of his officers 



PAY THE GOVERNOR A VISIT. — POPULACE. 47 

landed, and were immediately surrounded by 
numerous officials ; and all falling into proces- 
sional order commenced a progress towards 
the temple, I taking advantage of my black 
coat to pass as the confrere of the chaplain. We 
marched through streets lined by policemen, 
behind whom were four or five rows of men, 
women, and children on their knees, perfectly 
silent and orderly, upon whom the laced 
cocked hats, rich epaulettes, and glittering 
swords of the naval officers appeared to make 
a great impression. 

As we approached the temple, pieces of 
calico connected the trees together and hid 
whatever was required to be concealed. Im- 
mediately near the temple a row of twenty 
men was ranged on each side of the court- 
yard. On the right hand, these men were 
equipped as arquebusiers, with their slow 
matches coiled. On the left, the body guard 
was armed with halberts twenty feet long; 
the steel of halbert and arquebus alike covered 
with leather, as the presenting of naked 
weapons before friends is forbidden by Japa- 
nese etiquette. These troops were picked, 
taller and stronger than the mass of the police, 



48 APPEARANCE OF HIGH OFFICIALS. 



and were clothed in cotton robes and cotton 
trowsers tightly fitting their large limbs, 
and on their heads were black Japanned 
broad-brimmed hats, somewhat resembling in 
shape those of the Chinese peasantry. 

At the steps of the Buddhist temple we 
were received by several high shoeless digni- 
taries, and conducted by them over matted 
floors, through galleries lined by oflicials and 
adorned by painted screens or figured calicoes, 
into a small room about twenty-five feet long 
and fifteen wide, opening on to a verandah 
and looking into a garden ; at the back of 
the room there was a long red and yellow 
calico-covered form, unoccupied, and in front 
another similar form with a detached seat 
on the extreme end. We found the lieut.- 
governor, the chief secretary, the harbour- 
master, and six or seven other oflicials standing 
with their backs to the light and the garden, who 
motioned us to sit on the red and yellow calico 
bench facing them; and as soon as we were 
seated they sat down. Low benches of the 
height of footstools were placed parallel to the 
forms, not to place our feet on, but, as we 
soon discovered, to put things on before us. 



JAPANESE ETIQUETTE. 



49 



In front of the solitary seat were the two in- 
terpreters on their knees ; and behind it, in 
the same position, were inferior secretaries 
and officials. 

Intense silence reigned in the room as soon 
as we were seated, and in a few minutes sounds 
of "hish — hish — hish," were heard uttered in 
low whispers along the galleries and verandah. 
The kneelers bowed their heads, and the higher 
functionaries bent on their seats ; and amidst 
the deepest silence a sword-bearer, with sword 
reversed and uplifted, entered, followed by a 
tall, elderly, thin Mongol, dressed like the 
other officials and also shoeless, who advanced 
to the commodore and bowed as we all rose to 
him, and then, with great dignity of bearing 
and courteousness of manner, stepped slowly 
in front of each officer and bowed to them in 
succession, after which, bowing to his own 
officials, he turned to the solitary seat, and, 
waving us to our seats, sat down. 

The intense stillness was broken by a 
whisper from the governor to the kneeling 
chief interpreter before him, who listened with 
downcast eyes in his prostrate position, and 
without casting his eye upward, gave faint 

E 



50 INTERVIEW WITH THE GOVERNOR. 

whispering assents to each sentence given by 
the governor. Our interpreter then advanced 
and caught the whispered message from the 
ever downbent lips of the chief interpreter, 
and noiselessly stepped aside to the commo- 
dore's ear, and in murmurs which gradually 
assumed conversational tones, and which I 
heard distinctly, conveyed "the governor's 
respects to Queen Victoria." " The commo- 
dore's respects to the Emperor of Japan" were 
distilled, by the same quiet process in versed, 
into the ears of the governor ; and yet, though 
this system lasted during the interview, every 
Japanese word that passed was taken down 
by the secretary, who was on his knees behind 
the governor. — " The governor hopes Her Ma- 
jesty is well." " The commodore is happy to 
say that the last papers received from England 
stated that Her gracious Majesty was quite 
well." — " Governor is glad to see commodore." 
" Commodore has much pleasure in paying 
his respects to the governor," — " Governor is 
sorry that he has nothing to offer." Upon 
which two sworded individuals on their knees 
and with heads bent, placed long bamboo 
pipes with very small silver bowls, little boxes 



JAPANESE MODE OF SMOKING. 



51 



of fine lacquer full of tobacco, lacquered ash 
trays, and small metal charcoal dishes, on the 
low stools in front of the officers — English 
and Japanese. 

The governor then motioned to us that we 
should light our pipes, and set us the example. 
The tobacco was light-coloured, very fine, and 
weak, and as the pipe bowls hardly hold more 
than a good pinch of snuff, on our bench they 
were frequently filled before the first smoking 
ceased ; whereas with the Japanese the custom 
is only to smoke one bowlful and then lay 
aside the pipe for a quarter of an hour, more 
or less, according to individual taste. 

When, therefore, the pipe had been emptied, 
the governor resumed the conference by ask- 
ing, " Are England and Russia still at war ? " 
"Yes." — "Would English ships fire on Rus- 
sian ships near the coasts of Japan ? " " The 
English have orders to respect the neutrality 
of Japan." — " Did an English ship that can go 
both ways lately take many Russian ships ? " 
" Commodore has not heard of it." — " What 
kind of coal is best for steam-ships, — black, 
hard, or rusty red? " " When Hornet returns 
commodore will send some pieces of good coal 

E 2 



52 



REFRESHMENTS. 



to governor." — "Where have the two smaller 
ships gone ? " " Not very far." — " Why did 
they go?" "They have gone for a short 
cruise." The next interruption to the colloquy 
was caused by the entrance of a dozen domes- 
tics, bearing trays, on which were tea-cups 
of fine china and of the beautiful red lacquer 
of Japan. These trays were placed on the 
stools in front of each officer, and we were 
served as before, kneeling. Sponge cakes, 
preserves, oranges, and confectionery were 
subsequently brought in. 

Immediately anything was set before us, 
" the governor requests that you will take " 
whatever it was, was instantly said. He in- 
variably ate and drank himself as soon as he 
had begged us to do so. 

Several questions relative to our passage 
from Hong Kong, the progress of the rebellion 
in China, our destination, the probable arrival 
of the admiral, whether the commodore was 
married, whether he lived in London, and on 
other miscellaneous topics, were put and an- 
swered ; after which, " the commodore hoped 
he would have the pleasure of seeing the 
governor on board the Sibylle," and " the go- 



ANOTHER SUSPICIOUS SAIL. 53 



vernor regretted that he was so unwell that 
he could not go on the water." " The com- 
modore expressed his regrets ; " upon v^hich 
" the governor promised to send the lieut.- 
governor in his stead." " The commodore 
would be glad to see him," was the reply. 

At this stage of the proceedings one of the 
lieutenants of the frigate entered in undress, 
and sent a message " that another strange 
sail was steering through the Straits;" and a 
slight manifestation of a desire to move being 
followed by an expression of a " wish to say 
good bye to the governor," his Excellency, 
adroitly perceiving that something had oc- 
curred, and without replying to the wish ex- 
pressed, which as yet had not been repeated 
to him by the chief interpreter, " apologised 
that he was unable to prolong the interview 
from the bad state of his health;" and rising, 
bowed to the commodore, and slowly passing 
down, he bowed to each officer in succession, 
and then preceded by the whispered " hish, 
hish, hish," and by the sword-bearer with the 
sword reversed, and followed by secretaries 
and a numerous suite, he left the room, where 
all the Japanese were kneeling or bending over 

E 3 



♦ 



54 ENVIRONS OF HAKODADI. 

their knees, with a bow to the latter class and 
a whispered word to the lieut. -governor. 

This functionary paid a compliment to the 
commodore, and expressed a desire to lengthen 
the visit as soon as the retreating steps of the 
governor were no longer audible. It was 
thought necessary to decline that pleasure ; 
and accordingly, escorted to the outer steps 
by the higher officials, we bade them there 
" Good bye." 

The streets were lined by the police, and 
crowded by the kneeling population as on our 
arrival, great order and deep silence being 
maintained. 

On getting on board, the " strange sail " 
was not deemed " suspicious," so that we were 
able in the afternoon to go ashore on the 
beach and walk across the foot of the hills to 
a fishing- village on the other side of the isth- 
mus. It was very populous, though poor and 
dirty, and the odour of the remains of the 
herrings, after being boiled down for oil, was 
most disagreeable, and soon drove us from the 
examination of the huge iron cauldrons and 
wooden troughs to the rocky eastern pinnacle 
of the peninsula, whence we looked down into 



" EXCITED " LADY. 



55 



a two-gun battery en barbette, with its guns 
housed, and its slopes green and well formed. 

We returned to the town over the lowest 
slopes of the hills, meeting every where signs 
of the fertility of the rich black soil, and we 
passed close to the tea gardens which are the 
scenes of so much that is peculiarly dissolute 
in Japanese manners. The use, or abuse 
rather, of saki, a spirit made from corn, is 
very common, and we were witnesses of a 
dispute between a young, pretty, respectable - 
looking, and intoxicated woman and her do- 
mestics, whether she was to be allowed to lie 
in a ditch as she wished, or be taken home. 
A policeman, who for the sake of learning 
English phrases had clung to us the whole 
afternoon, took no notice of the occurrence. 

This love of acquiring the English names of 
things is very common, and it was not unusual 
in the shops, streets, or on board the frigate, 
to be asked what we termed anything touched 
by the Japanese, who at once phonetically 
expressed the sound; and frequently men and 
boys were glad to stop us to listen to their 
acquisitions in English, or, as they often er 
say, " Amerikee ; " for they owe their earliest 

E 4 



56 



VISIT TO THE BAZAAR. 



knowledge of the language to the officers of 
the United States navy, to whom we also 
were indebted for the tact, patience, and good- 
natured firmness with which they obtained 
the power of going freely into the country 
round Hakodadi. 

It had been arranged, by the Japanese 
authorities, in order to lessen the incon- 
venience felt by us from the enforcement of 
the port regulations, that the shopkeepers 
should bring samples of their goods to one of 
the temples, which was temporarily to be 
fitted up as a bazaar; and though we were 
strictly forbidden to enter private houses, 
shops, or military buildings, — a pretty compre- 
hensive enumeration, — we were allowed, if we 
saw anything we wished to purchase exposed 
on the open counters, to direct the shop- 
keeper to send it to the bazaar. 

On the 3rd, therefore, we determined to 
visit the temple selected for this purpose, and 
found on reaching it, that one of the dwelling- 
houses attached to a Buddhist temple had 
been emptied of its numerous room-forming 
screens, and that the whole building was 
dedicated to trade. It was dark and small, 



LACQUER -WORK AND OKINAWA RE. 



57 



light entering from the verandahs ; new deal 
forms and tables were ranged down the room ; 
on the tables were placed the various arti- 
cles for sale, the forms were meant for the 
repose of the purchasers. Behind the tables, 
kneeling — or rather sitting on the soles of 
their feet — were the tradesmen; and at the 
head of the room, with braziers to light their 
pipes, and cups of tea, and pipes and tobacco 
boxes before them, sat in dignified discomfort 
on three new deal stools, two double-sworded 
officials and the chief interpreter. 

The lacquer-work was very beautiful ; the 
colours so rich and pure, and the designs 
often tasteful ; and it struck me very much, 
although I had lately seen some fine speci- 
mens at the manufactories at Canton. There 
is more elaboration and grotesqueness of 
design in the Chinese lacquer-work, whilst 
the Japanese content themselves with pro- 
ducing colours of exquisite tone and with 
simple ornaments. The small cups — thin as 
a wafer — of almost transparent porcelain, of 
light and graceful forms, were the most tempt- 
ing objects to purchase, and were not as dear 
as the soup bowls and cabinets of lacquer-work. 



58 DIFFICULTIES OF EXCHANGE. 

There was some mystery about the prices 
of things, for a question on this point from 
our own interpreter would be answered by 
the seller in so many hundred copper cash, of 
which about fifteen hundred are equivalent to a 
dollar ; whereas the chief interpreter, to whom, 
or to the officials, our money was always 
taken, demanded only dollars and integral 
multiples of dollars. By degrees the shop- 
keepers received the money themselves, when 
they could do so without official supervision, 
and their stock was sold much cheaper. 

The whole of the foreign coin must sooner 
or later pass into the hands of the govern- 
ment, as it is useless to the people, who cannot 
trade directly and freely, and who are punished 
severely if the police discover that they pos- 
sess foreign coins. We suspected that the 
government profited largely by the exchange 
forced on the people ; and subsequent infor- 
mation of the great extent to which the 
depreciation of the national currency is car- 
ried, from the excessive adulteration of their 
money, made us aware of the reasons for the 
great jealousy of the government. 

Some large dishes and a few jars of old and 



SILKS AND CRAPES. — TEMPER OF SWORDS. 59 

quaint China were exhibited, and on finding 
that they were eagerly sought after, the shop- 
keepers despatched messengers to their houses 
for more ; pipes ; tobacco cases ; ink and pen- 
holders of Japan metal ; fans ; toys ; and 
grotesque pieces of China or of metal, formed 
the chief stock in trade of the stalls ; the silks, 
satins, and crapes were far inferior to those of 
China, and much dearer. 

Great efforts were made to get swords, 
which have the reputation of being most 
excellently tempered ; all were unsuccessful ; 
neither money nor English swords would be 
taken in exchange for them, and five months 
later, when I quitted Japan, I did not hear of 
a single sword being in any officer's possession, 
though some of the ships were for a large part 
of the summer in Japanese ports. 

Some doubts of the temper of these swords 
arose in consequence of a playful encounter 
which happened on board one of the ships, in 
which a Japanese sword suffered some injury 
from the cuts of an English one, which had 
received several cuts from the J apanese sword 
without receiving any dents ; this superiority 
may have arisen from the more dexterous 



60 



APPEARANCE OF ROADS. 



handling of the officer, and from the English 
sword having been bought at a good establish- 
ment, — at Wilkinson's, I believe. 

There was, I fancy, a pretty general feeling 
of disappointment at the poverty of the shops 
at Hakodadi, especially in provisions, though 
it should have been recollected that the place 
was, until lately, a very inferior dependency 
of the neighbouring feudal capital of the 
Prince of Matsmai, — little more, in fact, than 
a town where fishing was carried on with 
great success ; and that much had already 
been done by the imperial government, and 
that there were unmistakeable signs of im- 
provement. 

One afternoon we went in the galley a little 
distance up the river nearest us, and landed 
close to a high trestle bridge, which spanned 
a stream of forty or fifty feet ; a well laid out 
road, twenty feet wide, with hedges on each 
side, and apparently leading into the country, 
promised us good views of rural life, and we 
accordingly followed it. The ditches on each 
side, the flowery banks, the willows growing 
in the hedgerows, all reminded us of home 
scenery, and the thatched cottages gleaming 



HAMLETS. — FIELDS. — PEASANTRY. 6 L 



here and there at small intervals, were English- 
like; these houses, at every two or three 
hundred yards on each side of the road, were 
roughly built of wood, the little domain of 
each running back towards parallel roads or 
small streams ; the fields were just being 
turned up by the plough, a large two-tongued 
spade, forced by the hand into the rich black 
loam ; a few fields were lying fallow, over which 
roamed groups of ponies, of about thirteen 
hands high, wiry and shaggy. 

The proprietors, dressed in long grey robes, 
and sandals of straw, or high wooden clogs, 
were rosy-cheeked, fat, and civil ; and number- 
less healthy children ran out of every door to 
look at the " Englishee," and were generally 
accompanied by large white dogs, vociferous 
in the extreme. 

A tall grey -bearded peasant came out of his 
house to meet us, and, with great courtesy of 
manners, invited us into it; unfortunately, 
this was forbidden by the port regulations, so 
that we contented ourselves with a glance at 
the comfortable interior, where a bright char- 
coal fire glowed, and on the raised and matted 
dais near it was an elderly dame, busied in 
household offices. 



62 HEADMAN OF THE VILLAGE. 



The straight level roads, the divisions of 
property, the separate yet continuous cottages, 
the mild politeness of the peasantry, and their 
sombre grey robes, reminded me of the happy 
domestic scenery of Lower Canada ; pic- 
turesque churches were, however, wanted to 
complete the illusion. We had not proceeded 
far on the road when a stout elderly peasant 
joined us, and good-naturedly pointing to a 
brawling stream, led us to its bank. Our in- 
terpreter endeavoured to elicit some informa- 
tion from our companion, and, it soon appeared, 
fruitlessly ; for beyond ascertaining that he was 
the responsible headman of the hamlet around 
us, nothing could be obtained : either his patois 
was too bad for the interpreter's southern ear, 
or the difficulty was purposely made. I in- 
cline to the former opinion, for we contrived 
by signs to understand that our acquaintance 
was a disciple of " the gentle art," and that as 
soon as the snow had quite disappeared, he 
should recommence the sport ; what fish was 
its object was more difficult to know, though 
the stream looked as if it ought to be full of 
trout, and the signs indicated by the peasant 
seemed to point to large trout. Bait, rod, and 



HIS CIVILITY. 



63 



line appeared to be the " implements " of our 
friend. On our return to the road, and re- 
suming our pace along it, the robust native 
accompanied us for a short space, until we 
approached a comfortable-looking cottage, into 
which he endeavoured to persuade us to enter, 
adding the inducement of drinking saki ; the 
invitation was necessarily declined, and we 
continued to stroll on. Our companion then 
tried by signs to prevail upon us to go back 
to the beach, which signs we did not respond 
to, and as the pace distressed the fat headman, 
he gradually dropped behind, and was soon 
hidden by a change in the direction of the 
road, which deviated into two branches. We 
chose that which led by most farmsteads, 
and the wind being chilly, we asked the in- 
terpreter to go his own pace, and told him that 
we would return by the same road ; and then 
stepped out for the first good walk we had 
had for many weeks. 

We could hardly imagine that the rural 
scenes around us, through which we were en- 
joying a tete d tete, unaccompanied by escorts, 
and one of us unarmed, the other with a light 
uniform sword, were in the jealously guarded 



64 FARMSTEADS. — FEMALE PEASANTRY. 

Japanese islands ; and the politeness with 
which all who met us saluted, completely 
reassured us. 

The farms look as if originally they had 
been of large extent, and had been divided as 
sons grew up and married, so that the houses, 
though each in its little property, are con- 
tiguous. We saw the women working in the 
fields, which, coupled with the everywhere 
swarming children, may account for the sex 
seeming to be of two ages alone : young, rosy, 
straight, and agile, with brilliant white teeth ; 
or old, wrinkled, bent, and with teeth so 
blackened as to appear toothless. A very few 
young married women, emerging from the 
one class, and with blackened teeth, pausing 
in the quickly passed middle state, looked 
strangely,— -more so than " cheeks all bloom " 
surmounted by grey locks in Europe. 

Occasionally a house of more pretensions, 
with better-papered windows ; with a garden, 
rich in curiously dwarfed trees and shrubs; 
with larger stacks of firewood ; and more 
tailless cats playing about it, denoted the re- 
sidence of some inferior official : and less fre- 
quently, a small Buddhist temple, embosomed 



HEADMAN AGAIN TEMPTS US WITH SAKI. 65 

in trees, would appear at a short distance 
from the main road. 

When we had gone as far as a return by 
daylight to the boat permitted, and were on 
the point of retracing our steps, the sharp, 
short gallop of a pony was heard behind us ; 
we turned and saw the headman in his great 
overrobe — overnothing else — mounted on the 
bareback of a rough little animal, and both rider 
and beast were out of breath, and hotr The 
hamlet dignitary seemed glad to have found 
us, and at once, laughing heartily at the suc- 
cess of his chase, pointed to a neighbouring 
house, and made motions expressive of his 
desire that we should all go there to drink 
some saki. To a proposition so social he con- 
cluded that there could be but one answer ; 
and therefore cantered off to the gate, — opened 
it, — dismounted, — and commenced greeting his 
neighbours. Seeing, however, that we did 
not follow him, he shouted to us, and made 
most pressing invitatory signals. The honest 
obedience to the regulations denied us this 
pleasure, and so on we reluctantly stepped 
homewards, leaving our guardian, who saw 

F 



66 



SETTLE ACCOUNTS. 



that we were bound towards the shore, to 
indulge himself, which he did to the top of 
his bent ; for presently he again overtook 
us, singing cheerfully, before we reached the 
bridge, and setting his pony loose, to graze at 
will in the fallow fields, he stumbled into his 
house, not a little " fou," as they say in the 
north. 

Our country walk was well timed, as the 
three following days were so wet that there 
was some difficulty in getting the shore boats 
to bring the remaining supplies of fish, vege- 
tables, wood, and water. These necessaries 
were got on board before the evening of the 
6th, when the harbour-master and merchants 
came to receive payment for the supplies. 
This was a tedious affair, and during the 
settlement of it by the proper officers, the 
harbour-master and interpreters smoked seve- 
ral pipes in the cabin, with interludes of tea 
and sherry ; indeed, if the solaces of tea and 
tobacco were withdrawn from the Japanese, 
time would become intolerable to them ; but 
with these calm delights, a great deal of 
eating and drinking, much ceremony, a little 
business, and a good portion of sleep, years 



PORTLINESS OF JAPANESE OFFICIALS, 67 



glide cheerfully on, adding weight to their 
portly forms, except when vicious, though 
legal, indulgence prevails, and is apparent in 
the sunken eye and shrunken form of many 
an official. 



p 2 



68 



CHAP. III. 

Difficulty of getting Westward. — Distant View of Matsmai. 
— The Beauty of its Position. — Fine Peak of Risiri. — 
Glimpse of Sagalien. — Gale of Wind and Sleet. — Pass 
Cape Lamanon. — Go Ashore. — Deserted Hamlet. — Pro- 
ceed further North. — Land. — Interview with Natives. — 
Description of them. — Large Black Bear caged. — Super- 
stition of the Natives. — Their Worship of the Bear. — 
Anchor off Baie de la Jonquiere. — Visit Settlement. — Coal 
found. — Stand across for De Castries Bay. — See Ships 
under Land. — Discovered to be Russian Squadron at An- 
chor. — Reconnoitred. — Force of the Enemy. — Steamer 
goes in to find Passage. — Description of Bay. — Position of 
Russian Ships. — Exchange Shots. — Find no Channel for 
Frigate. — Cruise off" Mouth of Harbour. — Go to the South. 
— Despatch Brig for Reinforcements. — Cruise. — Return 
to De Castries Bay. — Find it deserted. — Secrecy of it. — 
Land. — Signs of hasty Flight. 

At daylight, on the 7th, every one was glad 
to hear the order given to weigh the anchor, 
and to see the sails again set for our campaign 
to the north. A light westerly wind prevented 
our " working out" against the strong easterly 
current in the centre of the channel, and 
forced us to try to creep out under the high 
lands of the northern shore. This tedious ope- 
ration was attended by a slow though certain 



FINE VIEW OF THE CITY OF MATSMAI. 69 

progress till we got within sight of the bold 
capes on each side of the straits, when we 
stood • across ; but, unfortunately baffled by 
wind and current all the afternoon and night, 
daylight dawned upon us nearly due south of 
the rocky peninsula of Hakodadi, and close 
to the southern shore. 

A light southerly breeze springing up en- 
abled us to weather Cape Sangar by three 
p.m., and we slowly passed the steep rocky 
headlands beyond it, despite of the rapid 
current hurrying past us into the straits. 
We had been so many hours striving to get 
round these points, that a pleasant feeling 
of success was called forth as we lingeringly 
left them behind us. 

This feeling had not had time to subside, 
when rounding the last point before Cape 
Matsmai, a most enchanting view was pre- 
sented to us : before us, sheltered by bold 
wooded hills and lofty volcanic snow-covered 
mountains, lay along the shore and upon 
the lower green slopes, an extensive city, its 
white houses rising from clusters of birch, 
fir, spring-leaved beech, and blossom-crowned 
fruit trees, and stretching away some miles, 

F 3 



70 



BEAUTY OF MATSMAI. 



until the eye caught, on a fine green bluff 
sloping upward towards the lower hills, 
a large three-storied pagoda, — the feudal 
chiefs palace, — in a small park surrounded 
by white walls, with lesser pagodas at 
the angles. The glowing tints of a setting 
May sun lit up snow peaks, woods, white 
glistening houses, and the clear almost un- 
ruffled sea before us, shedding such soft 
beauty over the scene that it almost seemed 
unreal. The light breeze lulled as we were 
abreast of the city, and thus left us the en- 
joyment of this lovely picture until the short 
twilight deepened into night. Our burning 
hopes of a glorious campaign and the dry 
clear atmosphere about us, as well as the hour, 
lent additional charms to the beautiful capital 
of Yesso, and I should half dread visiting it 
under less favourable circumstances ; yet, as 
Keats sings— 

" A thing of beauty is a joy for ever ; 
Its loveliness increases : it can never 
Sink into nothingness." 

The following morning we were out of sight 
of Matsmai, and were slowly passing between a 
long hilly island, thickly covered with timber 



INTEREST OF LA PEROUSE'S JOURNAL. 71 



and the mountainous shores of Yesso. We 
continued to run steadily before light south- 
erly breezes in a genial temperature, though 
with occasional squalls to remind us that we 
were approaching shores 

" Where winter lingering chills the lap of May ; " 

—shores explored by the unfortunate La Pe- 
rouse, — visited by Commodore B rough ton, — 
and where no other European ships had ever 
penetrated, — as far as we knew, except when 
southerly gales had driven an American whale 
ship beyond the straits discovered by the 
great French navigator, through which lay its 
track to the rich fishing grounds of the 
Okhotsk Sea. 

The lucid and interesting journal of La 
Perouse was therefore our constant companion 
by the cheerful cabin stove, and mingled with 
the feelings arising at the recollections of the 
sudden and sad termination of his illustrious 
career, were selfish regrets at the loss of the 
fuller and completer details of his voyage, 
which he reserved for transmission by a surer 
channel than through the Siberian dominions 
of the Empress Catherine. 



72 



PEAK OE RISIRI. 



We had been out of sight of land about 
fifty hours, when, a little before sunset on the 
11th, we caught an indistinct glimpse of a 
dazzlingly white cone to the northward : it 
soon stood out sharply from the blue sea and 
clear sky, and as we slowly approached it, the 
setting sun's reflected rays were tinted in 
exquisite hues of violet and rose, and, before 
night a large portion of the island volcano of 
Eisiri was distinctly visible, though at the dis- 
tance of forty miles from us. At daylight this 
noble mountain isle was near us ; and, before 
a light breeze, we were the whole day running 
past it and the neighbouring long and prettily 
undulating island of Eifunsiri. The former 
riveted our admiration : it rises at first gradu- 
ally, with well wooded slopes and ravines for 
a few hundred feet, then suddenly emerges 
almost perfectly conical to a broken and 
castellated peak of about seven thousand feet 
above the sea. It stands a splendid beacon 
for ships, when making the westward en- 
trance to the straits of La Perouse, and in- 
flamed higher our eager curiosity to press 
forward into the unknown waters of the gulf 
beyond it. 



FIRST VIEW OF SAGALIEN ISLAND. 73 

The following morning we descried snowy 
ranges of mountains, extending northwards as 
far as the eye could reach. Our position 
rendered it certain that the bluff shores, 
rounded hills, and snowy summits before us, 
were on the island of Sagalien, Tchoka, and 
Krafto, or Oko Jesso, as it is called by 
Tartars, Ainos, and Japanese respectively. 
How much of the island was claimed or had 
been conquered by Russia, was one of the oft- 
mooted questions which a very hurried visit 
to these waters might have solved any time 
during the past five years. The country 
looked rich ; and virgin forests of hard woods 
announced a good soil. There was a bitterly 
cold breeze blowing from the snow-covered 
ranges, which increased, with rapidly falling 
barometer and thermometer, until a furious 
gale with sleet came down on the frigate, and 
compelled the Commodore to take in addi- 
tional reefs, and covered yards, rigging, and 
decks with snow. 

The weather moderated soon after daylight, 
which presented a very wintry shore, and a 
short angry sea to our view. The thermo- 
meter stood at 35°, but did not seem to us to 



74 



LAND ON SAGALIEN. 



indicate the true state of the temperature,— so 
chilling was the fresh breeze. 

On the 1 5th, a bold mountain on the coast, 
named Lamanon by La Perouse, rose through 
the clear cold air ; we could not discover any 
habitations below it at the distance we were. 
The following day when Peak Lamanon and 
four other peculiarly striking peaks had been 
left behind us, we occasionally saw, near the 
mouths of streams, small clusters of huts ; 
and, as it was deemed essential to communi- 
cate with the natives, we closed the shore, 
and anchored three miles from it, in thirteen 
fathoms. 

I was permitted by the active and zealous 
commander of the brig to accompany him in 
his whale-boat to some huts visible from the 
decks of the vessels, which we rapidly ap- 
proached, and found to be near the mouth of 
a small stream: there was a slight surf beating 
on the sands, which were strewn with large 
quantities of drift wood. Not a creature 
moved or dog barked as we landed, and we 
strode through the high withered reeds of a 
marsh, towards some scattered log-houses. 

They were soon discovered to be unin- 



IMPLEMENTS FOUND IN DESERTED HAMLET. 75 

habited and mostly in ruins. They were 
built on poles about five feet above the marshy 
ground, of strong rough fir logs, with ridge 
poles and rafters of young fir trees, the sides 
and roof being made weather-tight with birch 
bark. 

We climbed up the notched log that served 
as a staircase, and entered one of the least 
ruinous of the huts, and found fishing and 
household implements, nets, baits, traps, 
baskets of birch bark, wooden bowls, dishes 
and. spoons, bows and arrows, a large iron 
nail let into walrus bone, and two European 
knife blades, tied to hard wood by strips of 
hide. We afterwards glanced at two or three 
of the other houses which looked most habit- 
able, and saw the same signs of late occupa- 
tion. Dogs and sleighs were searched for, 
and we found something like a portion of a 
sleigh, and the skull of a dog. 

Opinions were divided as to the causes of 
the abandonment of the hamlet: I was in- 
clined to believe that it was the summer 
fishing station of some inland tribe of the 
island or opposite continent, rather than to 
imagine that disease or war had laid the spot 



76 ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY. 

desolate, and the results of subsequent in- 
quiries made me adhere to my first opinion. 

We stumbled upon some strong log in- 
closures, about ten feet long, six wide, and 
five high, which in many cases were covered 
also with strong logs, and puzzled our most 
ingenious companions to explain with any 
reasoning satisfactory to the remainder. We 
upset the logs, and sounded with a crow bar, 
in the hope of finding something hidden, 
and even dug into the ground, but without 
solving the mystery; to reveal it, a more 
intimate acquaintance with the Ainos was 
necessary. 

The steep earth banks of the coast were 
evidently peeled by furious north-westerly 
gales in winter ; above them rose grassy park- 
like knolls ; at a short distance back from the 
stream the country was hilly, and luxuriantly 
clothed with spruce, fir, and birch, and above 
and beyond were the snowy mountains. Game 
was plentiful: near the stream, duck, teal, 
divers, quail, and woodcock, were seen during 
our short walk ; and we likewise crossed the 
fresh foot tracks of an immense bear, and, fol- 
lowing it to the shore, saw signs of the half- 



VISIT A SETTLEMENT OF THE AINOS. 77 



finished repast on crabs and craw-fish, which 
our landing had disturbed. 

We returned to the ships, which were quickly 
again under weigh, and, skirting the land, 
hamlet after hamlet was passed during the 
afternoon. Next morning some natives were 
seen on the shore, and Captain Y. again 
kindly giving me a seat in his boat, we pro- 
ceeded towards the mouth of a stream, hoping 
to enter it in the boat. As we came near, four 
dark men, with very long black hair flying in 
the wind, and clothed in seal-skin jackets, kilts, 
and boots, waved their arms and hands, 
warning us to another landing-place, towards 
which they waddled with a peculiarly clumsy 
gait. 

Before the boat grounded on the beach, the 
natives fell on their hands and knees, and 
repeatedly touched the earth with their fore- 
heads. When we had landed, they with much 
agitation made signs that two small dogs 
accompanying us should be tied or held fast 
by the boats' crew. On finding this assented 
to, they with many demonstrations of respect 
led the way to their huts of rough logs, covered 
and the interstices filled up by birch bark 



78 



BEAR IN A LOG CAGE. 



and dry leaves ; they were low on the ground, 
and could only be entered by stooping on the 
hands and knees ; the larger huts, similar to 
those before seen, were used as storehouses for 
their fishing apparatus. One of the men 
was a magnificent savage : tall, lithe, straight, 
and strong, with hair, beard, and moustaches 
never desecrated by touch of scissors ; with a 
high broad brow, dark eyes, straight nose, and 
oval face, he was a far nobler creature than the 
Eed Indian, who I had always fancied was the 
pride of wild men. His fellows were less manly 
in their bearing, and smaller; and as far as 
dirt, mal-odour, and want of light permitted 
me to see, the women in the huts were ugly 
and little. 

On issuing out of a house, I caught a 
glimpse of one of the log cages, the mystery 
of our first landing-place in the island, and 
immediately ran up to it : I was saluted by a 
very angry growl, and pausing suddenly, saw 
a huge black bear ranging round and round his 
cage. He must be caught for sale, and these 
things are traps, were my first thoughts; 
rather too near the huts to entice so savage a 
beast, was the second; is it to decoy, or to 



WORSHIPPED BY NATIVES. 79 



frighten away others, were the third and 
fourth. Our interpreter's stock of languages 
was exhausted in vain, and we therefore com- 
menced to use signs. I raised my gun, and 
held out gilt buttons and tobacco as tempta- 
tions, to be allowed to shoot Bruin, for the 
sake of his fine skin. My proposal was met by 
looks of horror, and the natives endeavoured 
to lead us away, and did not seem to like re- 
maining near the cage themselves. A closer 
examination of the cage showed that the 
animal was carefully and plentifully fed with 
dried fish, and round the cage several small 
young pines had been placed in the ground. 

The natives gradually made us understand 
that if any accident happened to the bear, they 
would instantly fall ill ; upon which Captain V. 
with great quickness, suggested that the Ainos 
worshipped the bear; and a few more ques- 
tions elicited the information that one of our 
gipsy-hued friends had lately recovered from 
partial blindness by planting two pine sticks, 
which he pointed out amidst the group near 
the den ! 

Strolling about the houses we came to a 
second cage ; it was empty, and it required no 



80 



HUTS AND IMPLEMENTS. 



small patience and importunity to prevail 
upon the people to remain near us, as we 
continued our explorations round the vacant 
cage. At length, with some signs of fear, they 
pointed out the grave of the departed bear, 
within a few yards of the votive pines, offered 
to it whilst living. 

In front and rear of the huts were slight 
railings, attached to which in leather collars, 
and tied by long strips of leather, were rows 
of large white dogs for winter sleighing. The 
sleighs, of a very light construction, were out- 
side each hut, and, together with the bows 
and arrows, were protected from the weather 
by the projecting roofs. 

These people had communication with 
either the Manchu Tartars or Russian settle- 
ments on the Amur, as they possessed iron 
points for their arrows, hunting-knives, spear- 
heads, and strike-alights apparently of toler- 
able fabrication : and a few iron chains were 
on the dog collars. 

They produced in a little time a few marten, 
squirrel, and white hair furs ; and as at their 
waists hung copper cash, seemingly Chinese, 
we offered silver ; it was not liked by them, 



DIFFICULTY OF COMMUNICATION. 81 



bat tobacco and clasp-knives were eagerly- 
accepted in exchange for a few skins and for 
some dried fish resembling sprats. 

There was some difficulty in obtaining in- 
formation of the movements of ships in these 
seas. With patience, and by the aid of rough 
drawings on the sands and of signs, we 
imagined that they had seen, five or six days 
previously, three vessels running up the gulf, 
before a good southerly breeze. There is always 
great uncertainty in such a vague method of 
communication ; quickness and talent leading 
an officer to hasty conclusions from slight 
coincidences, whilst slowness of picking out 
some meaning irritates or weakens the interest 
of the impulsive and childlike savage. On 
the present and on subsequent occasions, how- 
ever, it was a real pleasure to witness the tact, 
temper, and quickness of apprehension dis- 
played by Captain V. 

The natives, we thought, migrate in the 
winter into the shelter of the forests ; but 
whether into the interior of the island, or 
along its shore to the Amur, we could not be 
sure, — such is the uncertainty of this means of 
conversing with them. On our re-embark- 

G 



82 



BAIE DE LA JONQUIERE. 



ation the natives again bowed their heads, 
and watched the progress of the whale-boat 
with interest, so different from their frail, 
thong or pine-peg-fastened punts. 

The squadron set sail in the afternoon, and 
ran within a few miles of the shore, which 
presented the same richly timbered appear- 
ance, and we saw villages on the embouchures 
of the frequently occurring streams. 

The following morning the ship anchored 
off the picturesque bight called Baie de la 
Jonquiere by La Perouse. A small river 
here discharges itself into the sea, and waters 
a broad and long valley, stretching many miles 
up the country. We landed in the afternoon, 
and were surprised that the natives did not 
come down to the beach ; nor did we meet any 
of them until close to their village, which was 
larger and its houses better built than those 
previously seen. There was, also, a sullen air 
in the demeanour of the men, who, far from 
making prostrations, were difficult of approach, 
and slunk away to their huts when they could. 
Some of us imagined that a Kussian military 
post might be near, or that a few Kussians 
were in or near the village. 



HABITATIONS AND IMPLEMENTS. 83 

Wood and water were procured by the ship's 
boats' crews, and enough large pieces of coal 
were picked up on the shore to nil a bag, for 
the cabin fire of one of the ships ; it was 
slaty, and had lain some time exposed to the 
weather, yet it burnt pretty well. 

The natives were of the same tribe as those 
last communicated with ; their houses, dogs, 
sleighs, arrows, spears, and fishing-tackle very 
similar ; and two live bears, of smaller growth 
than the bear first seen, dwelt in two substan- 
tial cages, and were regaled on the choicest 
dried fish, and received the due votive pines. 
Good furs were not shown freely, whilst seal- 
skin boots were readily exchanged for old 
flannel waistcoats or seamen's shirts. A 
Kussian naval button and several Chinese 
manufactured ornaments were exhibited on 
the persons of the natives. 

At daylight of the 20th our small squadron 
weighed and stood across for De Castries Bay 
before a strong easterly wind. The two shores 
of the Gulf of Tartary are here only forty 
miles apart, and nearly join, if our charts and 

slight information are correct^ forty miles to 
a 2 



84 



DE CASTRIES BAY. 



the north, leaving only a narrow passage for 
boats into the gulf of the Amur. 

Our knowledge of De Castries Bay was 
limited to the mention made of it by La 
Perouse in his Journal ; and we did not even 
possess the charts laid down by that illustrious 
navigator from the observations and survey he 
made in 1779. Since then, as far as we knew, 
Commodore Broughton had alone visited it, 
and the northerly part of the gulf, to verify 
La Perouse's descriptions ; and in the French 
officer's decision that there was no channel 
for ships through the strait into the Amur, 
his further unsuccessful search for a passage 
led him to acquiesce. This occurred about 
sixty-five years ago. Since then our ships of 
war have never, I believe, visited these waters, 
nor even competed with the French in efforts 
to trace the western shores of the Sea of 
Japan, — shores indented by magnificent bays 
and harbours, abounding in mineral wealth, 
and covered with fine forests, — as we have 
since learned from the Eussian naval officers, 
whose ships have been employed in reconnoi- 
tring this coast. 

The accounts of Tartary given by La Pe- 



"a sail under the land." 85 

rouse interested us so much, that our rapid 
run across hardly contented most of us, who 
eagerly wished to get ashore. The Commo- 
dore, whose anxiety to get to the north had 
been daily increasing as we approached the 
limits of the gulf, seemed to entertain hopes 
of seeing some Kussian vessel yet ; though 
many of those, who for weeks had zealously 
scanned the horizon, had now given up all 
such thoughts, and were only curious to see 
new countries and new people. 

That ever thought-inspiring and touching 
scene of a ship's company at prayers at sea, 
surrounded by the instruments of destruction, 
ready in a few moments " to thunder along 
the deep," whilst listening to the mild teach- 
ings of our holy faith, had just ended ; and 
groups of officers and men were proudly 
watching the Sibylle's speedy sailing before 
the fast-freshening breeze, which was already 
rather too much for the smaller vessels follow- 
ing her, when " a sail under the land " was 
reported. All glasses were instantly in requi- 
sition, and pointed towards the direction indi- 
cated. "I see one — two — three," the expe- 
rienced master murmured to me ; and, as his 

G 3 



86 



PREPARE FOR ACTION. 



telescope still bore on the bay before us, 
" Yes, there are four, five, and, I think, a 
sixth," he added. 

The excitement was intense, though subdued 
by discipline ; and when, in a few minutes, the 
Russian ensigns were discovered floating in 
the strong breeze, at a distance of seven or 
eight miles, the order and signal was given to 
" prepare for action ; " and whilst we steadily 
pursued our progress, the cabins and their 
furniture were hurried below, and shot and 
shell brought up. Officers came on the deck 
with their swords on, and armed, as fortune 
willed, with pistols, single, double, or Colt- 
barrelled. The doctors and chaplain were 
quickly in the already-prepared cockpit, where 
medical instruments, bandages, and lint were 
lying in admirable order. 

Ere many minutes had elapsed the noble 
main-deck of the Sibylle displayed its fine pro- 
portions ; and perhaps at that moment ship- 
builders — if placed on board — might have 
acknowledged the folly of cutting seven im- 
mense ornamental and yacht-like windows in 
a frigate's stern, instead of four or five useful 
and ordinarily sized gunports. 



STRENGTH OF RUSSIAN SQUADRON. 87 



The brig was ordered by signal to examine 
the enemy's force. In her usual well-handled 
style, and to the muttered admiration of the 
Sibylle's crew, she approached the outer bay, 
and off it signalled "a large frigate, three cor- 
vettes, a brig, and a steamer," as the compo- 
sition of the enemy's force. 

When we arrived within four or five miles 
the two sailing vessels shortened sail, and the 
auxiliary steam corvette, which had previously 
received orders to " get up steam," was di- 
rected by signal to enter the outer harbour 
and reconnoitre the position of the opposing 
squadron. She was long getting out of our 
view, but did not remain long out of sight ; 
for about 2 p. m. her yards were again visible, 
as likewise her signal " that there were six 
vessels." She was then recalled : the strong 
breeze and rapid tide so retarded her return 
that it was nearly five o'clock when she came 
alongside the frigate. 

During these six hours there had been a 
very active intercommunication by boats and 
signals between the Russian vessels, and the 
interest seemed to concentre in a large heavy- 
looking corvette carrying a reddish flag at the 

G 4 



88 



ATTEMPT TO FIND A PASSAGE. 



mizen, unlike the white blue-crossed ensigns 
on the other ships. The small steamer's smoke 
was also seen, and there were changes of 
position made by two of the vessels. 

After a short conference with the two com- 
manders, the commodore, accompanied by 
them, went on board the auxiliary steam cor- 
vette, and she again proceeded towards the 
outer harbour; on entering which the three 
small islands forming the protection of the 
inner harbour, and lying nearly in a north 
and south direction, were seen less than two 
miles distant from us. They were steep, 
slightly undulating, and well wooded, with 
three passages, looking practicable at a dis- 
tance, between them. On a nearer view there 
was evidently a shoal between the middle and 
the northern islands, whilst the sea was break- 
ing on either grounded ice or rocks between 
the southern island and the shore. Protected 
by this ice or rocky shoal, and at a few hun- 
dred yards behind it, so placed as to fire on 
the outer harbour without much obstruction 
from the southern islet, the Russian frigate 
was moored with springs on her cables, and 
broadside to the impracticable-looking passage 



POSITION OF THE ENEMY. 



89 



close to the southern island. Behind the 
other passage, which alone seemed available, 
a long corvette, mounting eighteen or twenty 
guns, was moored with springs on her cables 
and with her broadside bearing on the channel 
between the southern and middle islets. These 
two vessels were, I think, within range of 
each other. The other two corvettes, or 
perhaps armed transports, mounting ten or 
twelve long guns each, which could be brought 
on either broadside as required, were similarly 
moored in an inner line within range of each 
other and of one of the two first-named ships. 
The brig or brigantine was placed further 
back, and the small steamer, half hidden be- 
hind a projecting point, still further up the 
harbour. The steam corvette passed in, out 
of range of the frigate's broadside, towards 
the middle passage, steaming slowly ; and as 
she was sounding her way in, a buoy was for- 
tunately seen in the outer harbour placed near 
a rock, over which the sea, at some times of 
tide, breaks, though at this moment it was 
covered. The water shoaled gradually to 
seven and eight fathoms, and the Hornet was 
"stopped" when within about two thousand 



90 



FORCE OF THE ENEMY. 



yards of the long corvette, whose deck and 
tops were covered with men. 

From each mast-head of all the Russian 
vessels their white ensigns waved. From our 
mast-head the number of guns seen on each 
vessel was reported ; and it was conjectured 
that the frigate was the Aurora of forty-four 
guns; that the corvette was probably the Dwina 
of eighteen or twenty ; but whether the other 
long vessels were corvettes of twenty, or armed 
transports of ten or twelve guns, seemed pro- 
blematical in the unaccountable and blameable 
state of ignorance all the officers seemed in of 
the number, size, and description of the few 
vessels Russia possessed in these seas; — and this 
lamentable ignorance existed thirteen months 
after the declaration of war ! 

It would be presumptuous in me to attach 
blame to any one, yet to obtain all possible in- 
formation of the enemy's resources and power, 
is one of those simple professional maxims too 
often neglected by us. In the very bay before 
us Russia had been five years busily laying 
the foundations of a settlement, as the nearest 
and earliest open harbour for her possessions 
in the Amur ; and it was to this bay that the 



EXCHANGE OF SHOTS. 



91 



vessels which had eluded pursuit after the 
declaration of war were directed to proceed ; 
and we shall find that similar orders, and the 
same destination, saved the PetropaulsM ships. 

There yet remained nearly two hours of 
daylight, and the Commodore gratified the 
eagerness of the boyish crew of the Hornet by 
giving orders to hoist the red ensign and to 
try the range of the long thirty-two pound 
gun in the bow, which, as the furthest ranging 
gun in the service, ought to have reached the 
corvette at 2000 yards. We watched the 
flight of a shell, and were disappointed in 
seeing it fall short of the island. The Kussians 
cheered and returned the compliment from a 
broadside gun, whose shot fell likewise short 
amidst the cheers of our crew. The long gun 
was again pointed, and a second shell dropped 
some distance from the mark. A longer cheer 
from the Russians, who brought the bow of their 
corvette to bear on us, was followed by a well 
directed shot which fell between three or four 
hundred yards short, and was greeted by 
another cheer. This practice was, I assume, 
thought a waste of time, and we steamed back 
to the frigate and brig which were still outside. 



92 



CRUISE OFF HARBOUR. 



The following day the three vessels " stood 
on and off" the entrance to the harbour, with 
a view to entice the enemy's squadron to leave 
their strong position. The day passed without 
this object being attained; the Russians em- 
ploying it in active measures to strengthen 
themselves. 

What was to be done ? The first feeling of an 
English sailor must have been to attack at once. 
But an unknown harbour, at such a distance 
from any resources in case of an accident hap- 
pening, required a cautious approach : it mast 
be reconnoitred, and its channels sounded. 
There seemed to be but one channel, narrow 
and shallow, and the auxiliary steam corvette 
could not be depended on as a towing steam- 
ship : her power of self-propulsion against a 
head- wind was hardly sufficient for herself 
alone, and had been glaringly exhibited that 
day: on a subsequent occasion, against a 
moderate breeze, and in the harbour of Hako- 
dadi in smooth water, she failed to tow the 
Sibylle into an anchorage. Such were some 
of the reasons, I presume, which prevented an 
immediate attack, and subsequent experience 
proved that the true passage was that appa- 



THE ALTERNATIVES PRESENTED. 93 

rently barred by a reef of rocks or grounded 
ice, which latter was the real obstacle seen 
and that no reinforcements, on the 20th May, 
were within 1500 miles of the Sibylle. 

The second alternative was to blockade the 
Russian squadron. On so completely naval a 
question I am incompetent even to imagine a 
sailor's reasoning, as I have dared to do on the 
point of an immediate attack. That difficulties 
would attend an anchorage in the outer 
harbour, with the land two thirds surrounding 
it in the possession of the enemy, upon which 
batteries and riflemen could be placed, is 
obvious ; and that the power of choosing the 
time and method of attack would then pass into 
the hands of the superior force blockaded, seems 
indubitable ; and, lastly, one of the ships could 
not in such a case be spared to convey the in- 
telligence of the position of both squadrons. 

The remaining alternative appears to have 
been to blockade the port by keeping the sea 
with two vessels, and to despatch the smallest 
one with intelligence; for the ultimate safe 
arrival of a pinnace or barge was doubtful, 
and its passage down would probably have 
been slow against the southerly winds so pre- 



94 



SAIL TO THE SOUTH. 



valent in summer. This alternative was acted 
on, and at once ; for no sooner had the day- 
light entirely failed, than the three vessels 
stood out to sea, and during the two follow- 
ing days slowly sailed to the south, to accom- 
pany the Bittern, which left us at midday 
on the 23rd, when the frigate and corvette 
commenced cruising in a narrow part of the 
gulf to prevent the escape southwards of 
the Russian squadron. Occasionally catching 
glimpses of either shore, through the fogs 
which hung around us, and without a sight 
of sail or boat, we kept as much of the gulf 
watched as was possible under such circum- 
stances, until the 27th, when the two vessels 
bore up for De Castries Bay. 

The next morning, as we skirted the well- 
known bluff, every glass was turned towards 
the bay, and long before it was possible to see 
them, masts were descried by anxious and 
eager eyes. A nearer approach revealed that 
the Russian ships had evidently changed their 
positions, though where they had moved to 
could not be discovered ; and slowly and dis- 
agreeably the conviction came to every mind 
that the enemy's squadron had escaped. Still 



ESCAPE OF THE ENEMY'S SHIPS. 



95 



to the last some hopes yet remained, until we 
got into the outer harbour, and found that the 
inner anchorage was unoccupied. 

Regrets and disappointment were un- 
bounded, and felt by none so deeply, though 
silently, as by the commander, who had, I am 
sure, sacrificed the quick impulses of his 
nature, and the honourable promptings of am- 
bition, for the caution which his judgment 
dictated to him was his duty. 

The Sibylle anchored in the outer harbour, 
whilst the Hornet got up steam, and soon 
worked into the middle passage, sounding as 
she went. In the centre of it, and round the 
position formerly occupied by the advanced 
corvette, there was enough water for the 
Hornet, yet for the entrance of the Sibylle 
the channel was almost impracticable. The 
southern passage was now, however, clear of 
ice, and was evidently the right channel for 
frigates and large vessels. The telescopes 
searching in every direction revealed nothing 
stirring on the shore ; the Hornet was, there- 
fore, " stopped " in front of some rough log 
buildings and wharfs, and two boats with 
armed crews were despatched towards them. 



96 



STATE OF DESERTED HAMLET. 



As we approached them there were no evi- 
dences of life, human or animal, and we ran 
the boats ashore on some logs, roughly pre- 
pared to form a pier, and ascended the steep 
banks. 

Immediately in front of us were six roughly 
hewn log buildings, similar to those of the 
backwoodsmen in America, in different stages 
of completion, two in a state of habitableness, 
two nearly so, and two without roofs, and 
with the rough pine floors only half lain. 
They were each about forty feet long and 
fifteen wide ; and the two more finished 
houses had lately been occupied by troops, as 
was evident from the wooden trestle beds, on 
which some of the clothes were left ; from the 
uniforms lying about the floors ; from the still 
opened books ; and from the numerous boxes 
piled in different corners. Many barrels of 
rye flour, some vegetables, and a few packages 
of seeds were likewise found. 

The boxes on being opened proved to contain 
fur coats and other apparel, male and female, 
of some rich Russians, and a few official docu- 
ments, letters, and a portrait of a lady. 

Around these log houses the forest had been 



HOT BREAD DISCOVERED. 



97 



partially cleared to an extent of nearly 100 
acres, and a tolerable road ran northwards 
from them. We followed it a short distance, 
and saw a few old sows, with numerous young 
progenies, and the traces of houses and some 
smaller huts: on entering one of the latter, 
ovens still hot were discovered, and a large 
quantity of coarse black bread, quite warm. 

On the first sight of the Eussian squadron 
on the 20th it was suspected that Petro- 
paulski had been abandoned, and that all the 
ships in these seas had been ordered to be 
concentrated in the Amur. All we saw con- 
firmed these suspicions that the garrison ships 
had been withdrawn from the sterile and 
scanty peopled peninsula of Kamtschatka, 
where even in time of peace it is found dif- 
ficult to get sufficient provisions for them. 

Unfortunately no one in the squadron was 
able to read Russian ; and though the classical 
attainments of the amiable chaplain were 
cheerfully and zealously applied to decipher 
many Greek-like characters, very little informa- 
tion was obtained. 

There were also some signs that the squa- 
dron had only lately quitted the bay ; and the 

H 



98 RUSSIAN SQUADRON QUITS THE BAY. 



spars of a corvette being found securely 
moored, seemed to intimate that it had not 
gone to any great distance. The position was so 
strong, and might have been rendered so very 
much stronger, that the doubts of the correct- 
ness of the assertion of the shallowness of the 
northern part of the gulf increased in the 
minds of some officers, including, I believe, 
the Commodore. Unless a safer retreat 
existed to the northwards, the .Russians could 
hardly have found a place where they could 
have awaited an attack with more confidence, 
and from which, when beaten, they could have 
easier retreated, after destroying their vessels. 

Looking at the narrow passages between the 
islands, at the thickly wooded islands on 
which masked batteries and riflemen could 
have been placed so advantageously, I was 
astonished that the Russians had deserted the 
bay ; and as I still believed in the correctness 
of La Perouse and Broughton's dicta, that 
there was no passage for ships into the gulf of 
the Amur, and as, above all, there was no 
perceptible current, or discoloration of water, 
which the discharge of the Amur by this 
channel must have caused, — I imagined that 
the enemy had passed us in the fog, and that he 



DELAY IN SENDING A REINFORCEMENT. 99 

trusted to an early breaking up of the ice in the 
Sea of Okhotsk to allow his ships to enter the 
Amur by the north, round Cape Elizabeth. 

We counted the days since the Bittern had 
left us, and in our eagerness for reinforce- 
ments conceived that she might beat down to 
Hakodadi, against the constant southerly 
winds, by the 29th, or perhaps even by the 
28th ; and that, under a press of sail, three, or 
at most four, days would suffice to bring two 
or three ships up to settle the question of the 
practicability of the southern passage into the 
Amur before the next spring tides. How 
faithfully and how assuredly every one seemed 
to rely on the Bittern's unremitting beat, and 
the far easier run of the reinforcements before 
the constant breeze. The Bittern, as expected, 
nobly redeemed its pledge, by arriving off 
Hakodadi on the 29th May; — the reinforce- 
ments reached La Baie de la Jonquiere on the 
25th June ! and never looked into De Castries 
Bay, nor bent a sail, until a rare northerly 
wind tempted a speedy return to the south ! ! 
and for five months the Russians were permit- 
ted, unvisited and unmolested, to strengthen 
any position they chose to take up ! ! ! 

H 2 



100 



CHAP. IV. 

Sail to the South. — Strange Sail at Night. — Quarters. — 
Stranger runs into Hornet. — An American. — Flagship seen 
and joined. — Cruising near Cape Crillon. — Land. — Rein- 
forcements. — Go North again. — Slow Pace. — Again reach 
Baie de la Jonquiere. — Squadron remains there. — Hasty 
Reconnoitre of the Head of Gulf of Tartary. — Squadron re- 
turns to Cape Crillon. — French Ships arrive. — Departure 
of Flagship for J apan. 

On the 29 th May we stood out to sea, beating 
against the southerly breeze and its constant 
accompaniment of fog, caused by the warm 
air from the more temperate regions coming 
in contact with the lately thawed waters of 
the gulf. Sometimes the fogs were so thick 
that the horizon was bounded by a radius of 
100 yards ; generally it was not so dense ; 
and frequently it was a light haze obstruct- 
ing all view of the other ships, yet only dimly 
veiling the rays of the sun, which glared a 
shapeless brightness through it. 

At our first entrance into these unsurveyed 
seas, the frequent fogs caused much trouble to 
the consorts of the Sibylle to keep their 



STRANGE SAIL CREW AT QUARTERS. 101 

stations, and were apparently attended by risks 
of getting ashore : it was soon found, however, 
that a near approach to the shore brought the 
vessels into clearer weather, and that a lane 
of water free from fog, of from three to six 
miles in width, runs along the coasts, which 
radiate the heat received from the hot sum- 
mer sun of these regions. 

We continued to beat down towards our 
daily expected reinforcements, with the wet 
fog ever around us, till on the evening of the 
4th J une, after a few hours of clearer weather, 
a sail was reported about six miles to the 
north-west. We instantly began to run towards 
her: it was just before dark: night signals 
were made on approaching her; and as they 
were unanswered, the ships prepared for 
action, the Hornet " getting up steam." The 
night was dark, and there was some difficulty 
in keeping close to the stranger, who was 
under easy sail : the sailors were lying down 
near their guns, and everything ready for im- 
mediate action, until sometime after midnight, 
when the Hornet hailed " She is an American 
whaler;" and then with some laughter most of 
the " idlers " " turned in." 

H 3 



102 



HORNET RUN INTO. 



Early dawn showed our new acquaintance 
in a sad plight. The Hornet, in her anxiety to 
keep near the stranger, had been run into, 
with the loss to the whaleship of her bowsprit 
and other slighter damages. In a few hours 
the master of the stranger came on board, and 
summed up the history of a three years' un- 
successful search for whales by recounting 
the past night's disaster. Proper assistance 
was at once given him, and during the per- 
formance of the necessary repairs he commu- 
nicated the information which many years' 
knowledge of the Sea of Okhotsk had enabled 
him to acquire. 

The whales of " the right sort," it appears, 
pass through the Straits of La Perouse early 
in May, or as soon as they are clear of ice, 
and, avoiding the floating ice near to, and the 
ice-bound eastern coast of Sagalien, proceed by 
the eastern shores of the Sea of Okhotsk, until 
near the latitude of Jonas Island, when they 
stretch across, as the season and fields of ice 
permit, towards the Shantar Isles, in the bays 
and inlets of which the young are brought 
forth and reared in July and August. 

It required two days to effect the chief 



REINFORCEMENTS ARRIVE. — CZAR'S DEATH, 103 

repairs to the whale-ship. On the morning 
of the 7th, two sail being seen, we stood 
towards them, and quickly ascertained that 
they were the Winchester and Spartan fri- 
gates. Instantly the long repressed desire 
for news and letters from home was rekindled, 
and the return of the cutter with the heavy 
mail-bags anxiously watched. " The Em- 
peror is dead," was the first hurriedly given 
news ; and it was with no little nervousness 
that a reply to the demand of " which Em- 
peror ? " was listened for ; and sudden and 
startling as was the announcement of the 
Czar's decease during the war he had so 
wilfully brought on, there yet predominated a 
feeling of relief, that the oft-attempted and 
valuable life of the Emperor of the French 
had not been cut short. 

From the 7th to the 15th we continued 
under easy sail near the same spot, and 
rumours were rife that we were awaiting the 
arrival of two French frigates, and of the 
mail of April, which it was understood the 
steamship Styx was to bring up from Shan- 
ghai. How galling the delay must have been 
to the gallant men, who keenly felt the tem- 

ii 4 



104 CRUISING NEAR CAPE CRILLON. 



porary escape of the Russian squadron, can be 
understood by every Englishman ; and I hope 
I shall never forget the noble examples of 
self-restraint imposed by the superior officers 
upon their eagerness to advance, and of cheer- 
ful and respectful obedience to orders, at the 
first blush, at all events, distasteful to the 
bold daring of our seamen. 

On the 15th, the squadron, now augmented 
to three frigates, a steam corvette, and a brig, 
anchored near Cape Crillon, the south-western 
extremity of the island of Sagalien ; and the 
boats were soon busied in watering the vessels 
from a clear stream. We landed at no great 
distance from a Japanese fishing station, — the 
Ainos, as the natives are called, coming down 
to the shore to meet us. Their subjection to 
the Japanese was visible in their adoption of 
the custom of shaving the crown of the head, 
in their use of the Japanese salutation, and in 
their clothes : they had also contracted a 
sullenness of bearing, very unlike the freer and 
manlier port of the natives in the north. 
One of them understood Japanese, and our 
interpreter was able to comprehend his replies 
sufficiently to ascertain that the southern 



RUSSIAN SETTLEMENT RELINQUISHED. 105 



portion of the coasts of the island was under 
Japanese rule ; and that, as the streams 
abounded in salmon, salting and drying 
houses were established near them ; and that 
dried salmon was exported with large quan- 
tities of fish manure to Matsmai, upon which 
principality this colony depended. 

We likewise learnt that, five years pre- 
viously, some Russian settlers had arrived, 
and that most of the Japanese had retired, 
until last summer a few ships had embarked 
the Russians, and that then the Japanese had 
returned in great numbers. 

Independently of its probable wealth in furs, 
there was much in the view of the land before 
us to tempt a far weaker appetite for aggran- 
disement than that of the Czar. When we 
passed it four weeks earlier, it did not look 
inviting ; but now no snow was to be seen, 
even on the mountain summits in the dis- 
tance ; whilst at our feet was a rich soil, covered 
with luxuriant grasses, often five or six feet 
high ; and wild-briar, raspberry, geranium, 
rose-bushes, and lilies, were springing up on 
all sides around us : it certainly seemed as if 
all the crops and fruits of the more northern 



106 STRAITS OF LA PEROUSE. 



temperate zone would flourish here, and that 
the well-timbered hill-sides would afford 
supplies for generations. 

Politically considered, the command of the 
Straits of La Perouse is needed by Russia, to 
secure a ready communication between the 
Amur and the Kurile Islands and her other 
possessions dependent on the Governor-Gene- 
ral of Eastern Siberia at Irkutsk ; and it 
would place her in an authoritative attitude 
towards Japan and Corea, and tend to render 
the Sea of Japan a Russian lake. Twice 
during this century have the Siberian governors 
authorised attacks on Aniwa; and the last 
expedition was placed under the orders of the 
aide-de-camp of the present governor-general, 
MouraviefF, who is a brother of the Russian 
commander-in-chief in Armenia and Georgia, 
and supposed, with his brother, to have been 
most highly considered by the late Czar 
Nicholas. 

On the 16th, the Styx steam corvette and 
the Tartar, a steam-tender, joined the squadron, 
bringing the English papers of April 10th, 
which quite destroyed all the Chateaux en 
Espagne founded on the chance of peace ; and 



Whales seen in large numbers. 107 

the following day the ships at length turned 
their bows towards the north, running before 
the constant southerly wind, and within a 
few miles of the green and wooded hills of 
Sagalien. The water near the shore was 
warmer than it had been ; and we saw large 
numbers of immense whales in pairs, playing 
on the smooth surface of the lakelike gulf, and 
seemingly in intense enjoyment of the lovely 
weather. Their unwieldy gambols commenced 
with rolling over and over ; then, with their 
huge broad tails — flukes — for a second high 
above the liquid plain, they would plunge 
downwards, reappearing one after the other, 
spouting volumes of water ; they would then 
lie supinely extended for a few minutes be- 
fore renewing their uncouth play " of which 
there seemed no end." 

Many seals also, with noses erect, followed 
the ships occasionally ; one especially in- 
terested us, as it looked quite tired, and fre- 
quently attempted to get up by the rudder 
chains, showing, as its body half emerged from 
the sea, large discolorations on its skin, re- 
sembling wounds, and uttering very doglike 
breathings ; it pertinaciously strove to get 



108 STYX AND TARTAR SAIL SOUTHWARDS. 

repose on some portion of the rudder, until a 
stone from an idle hand drove it away. 

Three days of delightful weather, without 
very much wind, were coming to a close, when 
a fresh breeze set in on the evening of the 
20th, attended by slight symptoms of a coming 
fog; and we had just commenced speculating 
on what we should see next morning at De 
Castries Bay, when the squadron was "brought 
to the wind," and " lay to " till the subsequent 
evening, The Styx and Tartar were shortly 
seen going southwards, to the astonishment 
and regret of almost every one, I believe ; for 
the departure of the Tartar proved that it was 
no longer intended to use her as a pioneer for 
the Amur, for which her draught of eight or 
nine feet seemed to qualify her ; and the with- 
drawal of the only remaining steam-ship 
capable of towing a large frigate appeared to 
intimate that no attack would be made on the 
enemy's squadron, even if found at anchor; 
and upon many high gallant spirits " coming 
events " cast their deep shadow. 

The breeze moderated, but the fog continued 
for some days, with an horizon changing from 
200 to 800 or 900 yards, varied only by occa- 



LA BAIE DE LA JONQUIERE. 



109 



sional short clearings up, when the squadron 
was generally found in pretty good order of 
sailing, and without any press of sail. The 
decks were sometimes dried by the dimly-seen 
sun, whilst shrouds, rigging, and sails were 
dropping continuously ; and at these times the 
warmth of the sun was cheering and pleasant. 
On the third day, having lost all sounds from 
the rest of the squadron, the Sibylle's bow was 
turned to the eastern shore ; and in a few 
hours, from the mast-head, the three peculiar 
pinnacle rocks off Cape La Jonquiere were 
descried above the fog, and were shortly after- 
wards seen from the deck at a distance of six 
or seven miles, whilst to seaward the fog pre- 
vailed as thick as ever. 

We had the little inlet to ourselves, and 
landed in the evening soon after the Sibylle 
had anchored. The natives appeared to be 
less reserved than on our former visit, and 
showed greater anxiety to procure European 
clothes, exchanging seal-skins and seal-skin 
fishing boots for flannel waistcoats or seamen's 
frocks. It was difficult to make them think 
of anything else. A present of tobacco ga- 
thered together a small knot of them, and one 



110 NATIVES DESCRIBE THE LOCALITY. 

of the most intelligent began to comprehend 
the signs made, and to answer them by similar 
pantomime. Thus b}^ pointing to each shore, 
and tracing an outline of them on the sands, 
they were incited to complete them towards 
the north, which they did at once vociferously 
and unanimously, by almost joining the two 
shores, then expanding them into a lake, and 
then tracing a river on the western side, dot- 
ting towns on each bank, to which they gave 
names, and allotting some to " Lorchas " 
(Eussians) and others to "Manchus" (Tartars). 

The narrow channel was represented as 
more than twelve feet deep. A few feet more 
than the depth of their poles would be un- 
fathomable by them however, so that some 
doubt may legitimately arise on this point ; 
and they expressed the relative distances of 
the several places by signs implying the 
number of times they would sleep en route. 
This was vague information, as we could not 
learn how far a good day's pulling would take 
them. Yet, on the whole, the impression con- 
veyed to my mind was, that a steamer of small 
draft could, if unopposed, easily get into the 
gulf of the Amur, and might possibly pass 



SQUADRON REUNITES. Ill 



into the river Amur. And I yet trusted to 
be amongst the first to solve a geographical 
question, rather mysteriously evaded by Kus- 
sian surveyors, and unauthoritatively discussed 
by the great German physicists. 

The sun rose brightly over the distant 
mountains the next morning, and lighted up 
the park-like scenery on the banks of the river 
so cheerfully, that the desire to get ashore with 
our guns nearly mastered the eager wishes 
for the reunion of the squadron, which led so 
many eyes to search the foggy seaward ho- 
rizon, in the hope that the ever favouring 
southerly breeze would immediately be made 
use of; and, as the wind freshened, we began 
to dread that the other vessels had gone on 
without us. During the day, however, the 
ships successively appeared out of the fog, and 
all came in to the anchorage except the Spar- 
tan, which was directed to remain outside, and 
did not anchor till the following day, when, as 
nothing indicated a move to sea, several shoot- 
ing and fishing parties were organised, with 
the enthusiastic determination of enjoying 
themselves conceivable by those who have 
been long debarred these sports. 



112 A SHOOTING EXCURSION. 



My friend and I prepared for a long day's 
shooting through the woods, and, on landing, 
seduced a lazy native, by the offer of a little 
tobacco and the promise of more, to show us 
the way up to the hills. We left the village 
by a small footpath, apparently leading to the 
hilly country on our right hand, and had not 
gone a quarter of a mile when the guide began 
to incline to his left hand, and, despite of our 
remonstrances, gradually got us down into the 
swamp which borders the river, and endea- 
voured to leave us, making signs for us to 
remain there and hide ourselves to watch for 
ducks. This was not the game we were in 
search of, and we tried to turn the guide 
towards the hill once more. A little tobacco 
overcame his reluctance for a few paces ; it 
soon returned, and he threw himself on the 
ground in a state of perspiration, pointed to 
the sun, shook his black and wildly-tressed 
head, and by signs intimated that any more 
such exercise would make him sick : tobacco 
lost its power, and other presents offered to 
him availed as little to move him ; so we left 
him in the grass, and, accompanied by two 



STUMBLE ON A BEAR. 



113 



seamen, took the first path up the hill, through 
beech, fir, and thick underwood. 

We had gone only a few hundred yards, 
when E., who was leading, and just before me, 
suddenly stopped, held up his hand, and com- 
menced drawing the small shot from one of his 
barrels. I followed his example, and put a 
ball in each barrel. When he had loaded, he 
whispered, " a bear," and slowly advanced. 
Something like a wave in the underwood of a 
ravine close at hand half tempted me to fire ; 
but I resisted, and followed E. quietly, who in 
a minute or two, seeing or hearing nothing 
more, told me that he had been close to a 
black bear, and had restrained himself from 
firing with small shot. We searched the sur- 
rounding brushwood, and soon discovered a 
lair, which a very large animal had evidently 
only just quitted. 

So speedy a " find " encouraged us to mount 
the hill with alacrity, though it was severe 
walking, on account of the numerous large 
trees lying on the ground, and completely 
hidden by the luxuriant growth of under- 
wood. We continued to ascend and descend 
for some hours through large pine woods, or 

i 



114 A SEAL CAPTURED BY THE NATIVES. 



ravines of young beech and birch ; occasion- 
ally, from the hill-tops, gaining fine views of 
the richly-wooded country on each side of the 
river, or loitering hidden by their crests, 
vainly expecting that deer would cross the 
fine grassy slopes below us ; but our day 
passed unsuccessfully, and we returned to the 
beach to hear equally unfortunate reports from 
the anglers. 

The natives showed us that if they could 
not walk, they were able to do something ; for 
four of them got into a slight, long plank 
canoe, fastened by wooden pegs, and propelled 
by small sculls, which are pulled alternately, 
and lay for some minutes near the three pin- 
nacle rocks, beyond our view of their proceed- 
ings, and then pulled home singing; upon 
which the population of the village turned out 
immediately, and ran in great excitement to 
the beach. Vs T e followed the movement, and 
saw the boat pulled up and a large seal lying 
in it half dead. The captors left the seal in 
the care of an elderly man, who advanced with 
a large knife and quickly killed and skinned 
the animal, and prepared it for cooking. 

The apparatus used in catching the seal is 



ADVANTAGES OF THE SETTLEMENT. 115 

very simple. A wooden spear with a hard 
wooden point barbed, has a long line of dried 
skin attached to the barb, which line, on the 
spear being thrown at the sleeping seal, is 
rapidly " given out " from the bottom of the 
boat. As the seal swims away, loss of blood 
soon makes him faint, and he is dragged into 
the boat. The spear itself, on the seal being 
struck, is detached from its barb and floats on 
the surface and is quickly recovered. 

The seal, with sun-dried unsalted fish, is 
the food of both natives and their worshipped 
bears, and large supplies of each are easily 
procurable. 

Subsequently H. and I spent a long rainy day 
in the river, having pulled some miles up it with 
the idea of catching trout if the rain ceased. 
A great number of pigeons fell to H.'s gun, 
and many ducks and a large swan were seen 
by us. The country everywhere presented 
the same evidences of a rich soil, and the 
easily worked vein of coal near its mouth will 
no doubt induce the Russians to make a set- 
tlement here ; for though its title to be called 
a bay is unfounded, yet as long as summer 

lasts there is protection for small vessels 
i 2 



116 



FRESH RUMOUKS. 



against southerly gales ; and a four hours' sail 
alone separates it from the fine harbour in 
De Castries Bay. 

The auxiliary steam corvette hoisted the 
commodore's broad pendant on the afternoon 
of the 27th, and proceeded to sea. Kumours 
were rife that she was ordered to look into 
De Castries Bay at daylight, and then, if no 
enemy was seen there, to search the bays and 
inlets to the northward. The next morning 
broke with heavy rain and thick mist, and 
hopes were again buoyant that the boats of 
the squadron would be sent, on the return of 
the Hornet, to discover the enemy's position, 
the frigates advancing asTar as practicable, pro- 
bably thirty or even possibly forty miles, and 
the smaller vessels much further, to cover and 
protect the boats ; and as the corvette steamed 
in at the early summer dawn of this latitude, 
the fresh northerly breeze and bright clear 
sky seemed to lessen the chances of getting 
ashore, and diminish the risks of accidents. 
Risks ! how often that fatal word is used as a 
shelter for imbecility and indecision ! As if 
war was a certain game at each move, even 
with the immense preponderance of the allied 



SQUADRON RETURNS TO THE SOUTH. 117 

squadrons ! It was soon known to all that no 
enemy's vessels had been seen, and the alacrity 
of getting the ships under weigh promised a 
speedy settlement of the much-canvassed pas- 
sage to the north. Alas ! in a few minutes 
each vessel, with every sail set, — an unknown 
spectacle in our progress to the north, — was 
flying to the south before the pleasant breeze ! 

We have since learnt from Russian prisoners, 
that at that time, late as it was, only half their 
vessels had got through the passage never 
even reconnoitred by us ! 

We ran back to Cape Crillon before a fresh, 
not very fresh and rare northerly breeze, in two 
days and a half ; near which the squadron had 
cruised in our latest advance from the 7 th to 
the 17th of June, and from which, before the 
constant southerly breeze, it had taken seven 
days to reach la Baie de la Jonquiere. 

" Hurry and haste " seemed suddenly to 
have taken the place of " caution " at the 
wheel ; and even the sudden appearance of the 
two long-expected French frigates could only 
arrest this rapid flight for an hour: after 
which pause the noble white flag, with its 

i 3 



118 DEPARTURE OF FLAGSHIP FOR JAPAN. 

chivalrous red cross, was again floating before 
the wind towards the south, 

<f Hay cosas que se dicen 
Con pensarlas solamente ! " 

whilst the setting sun shone on the remaining 
four frigates and the corvette bearing up for 
the Straits of La Perouse. 



RUMOURED ATTACK OF AIAN. 119 



CHAP. V. 

Allied Squadron left at Cape Crillon. — Further Objects to be 
attained. — State of French Frigate Sibylle. — Anchor in 
Aniwa Bay. — Fishing Station of Japanese. — Inspect it. 

— Japanese Rule over Southern Sagalien, despotic. — 
Fertility of the Island. — La Sibylle proceeds to the 
South, the Squadron to the North. — Sea of Okhotsk. — 
Perpetual Fogs. — Coldness of its Waters. — Evidences of 
Discharge of a large Body of fresh Water. — Distance of the 
River Amur. — Its Current encountered. — Fall in with 
H. M. S. Barracouta. — History of the Doings of the Pacific 
Squadrons. — Off extreme Northern Point of Sagalien. — 
Currents. — Deception of Obman Bay. — Endeavour to 
enter Gulf of the Amur. — Difficulties. — Saw a Brig 
inside. — Movements indicative of being Russian. — Further 
Trials to find Passage. — Soundings. — Try the Western 
Shore. — Approach near Brig. — Deserted and set on Fire. 

— Yisited. — ■ Half the Crew captured. — Information from 
Prisoners. 

It was soon whispered that we were to 
attack Aian, the new capital of the govern- 
ment of Okhotsk, and a strongly fortified 
town on the sea of that name ; and the gradual 
escape of such news somewhat raised the 
hopes of the disappointed. The next day, how- 
ever, a boat from the French commodore's 
frigate brought a despatch for our commo- 

i 4 



120 UNHEALTHY CONDITION OF LA SIBYLLE. 

dore, and in a few hours we were steering for 
the anchorage at the head of Aniwa Bay ; 
and it subsequently appeared that so little 
time for communication had been given on the 
previous day, that the commander of La 
Sibylle, the French fifty-gun frigate, had not 
been able to notify the state of his crew, 
of which above a hundred were suffering from 
scurvy, nor even, it was hinted, had either 
of the French captains been offered time 
to send a single letter, though proceeding on 
a service which might cut them off from all 
communication with Europe for two more 
months. To alleviate the sufferings of the 
daily fast-increasing scurvy patients, it was ab- 
solutely necessary to get to anchor, and allow 
the crew to search for anti-scorbutic vege- 
tables. 

The Gulf of Aniwa is a large indent formed 
by the deep bend from the south-eastern 
to the south-western points of the island 
of Sagalien, and is about sixty miles wide 
and fifty deep ; its two extremities forming 
the northern limits to the Straits of La 
Perouse, which are from twenty to twenty- 
ve miles broad, with a rapid current to the 



JAPANESE FISHERIES ON SAGALIEN. 121 



eastward. We skirted the western shore of the 
gulf, which, like the rest of the island, was rich 
and pretty, and watered by numerous small 
streams rushing quickly from the mountains, 
never far distant from the coasts. At the 
head of the gulf the water is very shoal, and 
the squadron anchored nearly eight miles 
from it, under the shelter of a point, near 
which were the Japanese factories, built on 
the rich " flats " of the several snug little 
valleys so frequent on the coast. 

There were no rigid Japanese customs here : 
no harbour-master pulled off with the port 
regulations in a little wooden box, no guard- 
boats surrounded us, no preparations nor mus- 
terings of police officers were visible on the 
shore ; we landed without obstruction or cere- 
mony on a beach crowded by fishing-nets, 
drying-posts, huge iron boilers, and emitting 
the most disgusting mal-odours from the 
everywhere-spread fish manure. The Ainos 
were found busily employed filling sacks with 
this manure, under the superintendence of 
a few Japanese, who were rather sullen at first 
in their reception of us, perhaps imagining 
that our squadron was about to repeat the 



122 INTERVIEW WITH JAPANESE GOVERNOR. 

lesson taught by Russia. To the Amos we 
were incomprehensible ; we did not prostrate 
ourselves before the Japanese, neither did 
we force the Japanese to kneel before us : for 
some time, when we met the natives, they 
would stop instantly and sink on the ground ; 
but this habit did not last long, whether dis- 
continued by direction of the Japanese, or as 
fear of us diminished, we could not discover. 
The governor of the settlement was sought 
out, and a large, fat, good-natured, and un- 
polished individual was presented. He, we soon 
found, was a very civil, obliging person ; but 
at the period of our visit all the settlers were 
in a state of apprehension, as high dignitaries 
from Matsmai were in the colony making the 
annual inspection of the probable value of the 
fisheries. That the amount of salmon taken 
must be prodigious, was evinced by the numbers 
drying or dried, salting or salted; by the 
manure manufactories on every side ; and by 
the quantities of fresh fish brought off each 
day to the squadron: one day, indeed, 600 
salmon, from three to seven pounds weight, 
were sent on board the English Sibylle. 

There were a few temples in the different 



AINO HABITATIONS. 



123 



villages we passed through ; and generally two 
descriptions of houses, one sort tolerably built 
of rough logs for the Japanese, and the other 
being mere huts raised on the ground, and 
crowded into by the Ainos, and often only 
half rescued from the surrounding forest and 
underwood. 

One temple, dedicated to the powers of 
nature, proved that beyond using the Ainos 
as labourers, and accustoming them to require 
a few clothes, they do not endeavour to civi- 
lise them : the Japanese would also appear to 
make frequent use of their swords, for the 
almost invariable signs made by the natives, 
descriptive of their rulers, were shakes of the 
head, followed by applications of the sides of 
their hands with a cutting motion to their 
own necks. I suspect that more implicit obe- 
dience is not to be found in the world ; and it 
extends even to what is generally held to 
excuse disobedience in the most tyrannical 
governments, — the frequent severance of the 
conjugal tie, which knot, from all I saw or 
heard, and from the numerical equalities of 
the sexes, I imagine is as strong a bond as 
amongst other wild northern tribes. 



124 



FERTILITY OF THE ISLAND. 



The weather for the past month had been 
delightfully cool, Close to the land on all 
sides, we now felt something like English 
August heat, and it was a great pleasure to 
walk through the thick woods with our guns; 
and even though the grasses and nettles were 
six or seven feet high in the valleys, and the 
underwood close and tall, we every day 
fancied we could get some game, and toiled 
away for hours at the expense of the lives of 
a few pigeons. The luxuriance of wild flowers 
and shrubs, much as we had seen of the island, 
astonished us : yellow lilies and roses were in 
great numbers and in great beauty ; and 
raspberries, celery, angelica, and a species of 
rhubarb, were seen almost at each step. On 
the higher land the wood was chiefly pine ; 
on the lower birch, with fruit trees and 
willows. 

The medical officers decided that it was 
better for the crew of the French Sibylle 
to be landed, and the vessel thoroughly 
cleansed; so that she was at length left in the 
Gulf of Aniwa on the 10th, whilst the other 
ships recommenced their voyage to the north. 
No sooner had we got into the Sea of 



APPEARANCE OF SEA OE OKHOTSK. 125 



Okhotsk than the thick fogs surrounded 
us, and we were a week so accompanied, with 
only occasional clearings, running before the 
prevalent southerly wind, seeing nothing 
beyond a very limited horizon of sea, and 
hearing the constant pattering of the fog 
drops collected on shrouds, sails, or ropes. It 
was a dreary-looking sea, and the water, 
hundreds of miles before reaching the 
northern cape of the island, was discoloured 
and cold, though very deep. Listening for 
the answers to our signal guns, or watching, 
as the fog gradually " lifted," for the reap- 
pearance of our consorts, were, with the 
morning and evening music of the band, the 
only reliefs to the chilly monotony of the 
day. 

On the morning of the 17th a momentary 
clearing up showed a bold mountainous shore 
a few miles distant, and enabled us to perceiv e 
that we were still sailing against a current of 
some force, though upwards of a hundred 
miles from the mouth of the Amur, the 
water being more discoloured than before. 
The charts proved that we were forty or 
fifty miles to the S. S.W. of Cape Elizabeth, 



126 ARRIVAL OF H. M. S. BARRACOUTA. 

the most northern point of Sagalien. In 
the afternoon, during another and longer 
"lift" of the fog, a large steamer was de- 
scried five or six miles distant, under sail. 
She instantly put her funnel up, and began 
to " get up " steam with the view of passing 
us by going in the teeth of the wind which 
had lately veered round to the north ; she like- 
wise seemed preparing for action. Before many 
minutes the private signals were shown, and 
answered, and the stranger made her num- 
ber — it was H. M. S. Barracouta ; and as 
she had been sent some months previously to 
join the force prepared against Petropauloski, 
the arrival of her commander on board af- 
forded information of the allied squadrons 
having found that place deserted and dis- 
armed in June, and of the Russians having 
quitted it on the 17th of April for the Amur, 
taking away guns, stores, and a few troops in 
their vessels. The Barracouta, Amphitrite, 
and Pique frigates had subsequently visited 
the northern entrance to the Amur and 
Aian, and seen neither ships, guns, nor troops. 
The latter place was described as a miserable 
settlement on the skirts of the forest belonging 



IGNORANCE OF RUSSIAN CONQUESTS. 127 



to the Fur Company. So faded the romance 
of this strongly fortified town, and with the 
romance fled all hopes of seeing the enemy : 
the real discouragement consisted in the dis- 
covery, now patent to all classes, of how 
miserably deficient was the information con- 
cerning the possessions of a power we were 
at war with, and whose encroachments in the 
extreme East have been carried onwards with- 
out any accurate knowledge of them being 
sought for. 

What remained to be done ? Where were 
the enemy's ships ? So near the northern 
entrance of the Amur, and feeling its cold 
waters running by us, there seemed a chance 
of finding a passage in, though all the 
accounts from whale-ship captains combined 
in asserting its intricacy and danger even if it 
existed. The Barracouta joined the squadron, 
which shaped its course for the Amur: it 
anchored off Obman Bay (Deception Bay) on 
the 22nd, which on the chart looked as if 
capable of concealing an enemy's squadron. 
We did not understand Russian on board, or 
we should have avoided the search made on 
the following day. 

Obman Bay is an irregular circular inlet of 



128 DESCRIPTION OF OBMAN BAY. 



about ten miles diameter, connected with the 
sea by a narrow and shallow passage : a very- 
small extent of anchorage exists even for small 
vessels, and the general depth varies from one 
foot to six ! It is a magnificent looking sheet 
of water, with pretty wooded scenery round 
it ; and is, I suppose, one of the most animated 
breeding places for wild fowl in the world. 
Ducks of numerous kinds, geese, teal, and 
swans might be procured in large numbers ; 
and my accomplished companion, l'officier 
d'ordonnance of the French commodore, who 
had frequently given vent to his feelings by 
the expression " J'adore la chasse," could 
hardly be dissuaded from landing, and, as 
the anchorage was an illusion, having a 
day's sport. This, from the appearance of 
some of the houses near the forest, might have 
ended in a promenade to the Nicholauski 
fortress on the Amur, continued by stages 
to Irkutsk ! for in most of the projecting 
points on the coast an officer and a few men 
were posted, who retired into the forest on 
the approach of vessels of war, and despatched 
the news, but hung about sufficiently near 
to capture those who strayed. There re- 
mained no other objects of interest, save that 



DIFFICULTIES IN THE CHANNEL. 129 

of finding the entrance through the channel 
before us. The waters of the river had imparted 
a yellowish greenness to the current flowing 
swiftly past us : on one side stretched a long 
sandy spit nearly half across the passage, 
whilst above and below this tongue were low 
sand-hills crowned by stunted fir-trees ; on the 
opposite and western shore, bold bluffs and 
headlands, quickly rising into mountain ranges, 
bounded the view. Beyond these were the 
black and rapid waters of the Sagalien or Amur ; 
a few miles through forests and mountain 
passes, and all we wished to know would 
have been opened before us. 

Though the channel was so broad and its 
current so strong, we had no doubts of the 
powerful steamer's success in threading its 
reputed mazes ; and the first trial, with every 
promise of success, was made near the ter- 
mination of the sandy spit, round which the 
stream rushed with impetuosity. Towards this 
point, leaving the frigates eight or nine miles 
distant from it, the steamer boldly advanced : 
it had proceeded three or three and a half 
miles, and was in six fathoms, when the water 
shoaled; and before the orders to " stop her " 

K 



130 



STEAMER AGROUND. 



and " back her " could be carried out, she had 
bumped on the hard sands. The strength of the 
current, playing upon her, kept her from being 
u well in hand : " but with great ^ood fortune 
she slid off, after three or four hard bumps, into 
five fathoms. This was a severe lesson, and it 
reacted, perhaps fatally, on the previous ener- 
getic and zealous hopes of those responsible for 
the safety of the vessel. The boats were soon 
afterwards sent in advance by a channel more 
to the eastward, and at about four miles from 
the spit the steamer's anchor was dropped. 
A brig had previously been seen under sail ; it 
had worked its way into the gulf of the Amur, 
and was probably about twenty miles from the 
mouth of the river ; no colours were shown by 
it, and the frigate's taller masts had evidently 
been seen earlier than the enemy, who was 
slowly moving under easy sail eight or nine 
miles from the frigate. The sight of the retir- 
ing enemy, and the difficulties attending the 
discovery of a channel by boats against a rapid 
current, added zest to the zeal of all employed ; 
and I was a witness, for the two succeeding 
days, to the untiring patience and devoted 
perseverance with which officers and men 



WESTERN PASSAGE ATTEMPTED. 131 

crossed and recrossed the interval between the 
steamer and the sandy point, from which into 
the gulf a deep channel was quickly found, but 
to which the continuous and well-directed 
efforts of those employed could find no ap- 
proach for our vessels. 

Foiled on the eastern shore, the steamer 
was sent to the bolder western coast, and, by 
keeping near it, succeeded in arriving nearly 
abreast of the sandy spit, and within four 
miles of the new advanced position gained by 
the brig, which looked like a merchantman.' 
Though there was four fathoms of water, 
it was deemed prudent to anchor ; and the 
boats of the squadron attached to the steamer 
were on the point of being ordered to cut 
out the brig, I believe, when smoke was 
seen rising from her, and five boats leav- 
ing her. Our boats immediately went in 
chase ; yet such was the force of the current 
that the commander's galley, pulled by a 
strong crew animated by the hopes of 
saving the burning prize, took three hours in 
passing the four miles which separated us 
from the brig ! which blew up when we were 
half a mile distant, causing her to settle ©n 

K 2 



132 



RUSSIAN BRIG BURNT. 



the shoal, her stern and part of her port 
quarter being blown out by the explosion. She 
proved to be an armed trader, of six or eight 
guns, with a pendant flying, and full of stores 
and provisions ; and the only portion of the 
blazing mass approachable was the fore part ; 
and a small iron gun, a bell, a few books 
and papers, and her pendant, were taken from 
her. We remained beside her until both 
masts fell, and we watched with interest the 
arduous stern chase of the other boats, alter- 
nately aground and ashore, or dragged by main 
force over the sandy flats. The crews for 
twelve hours laboured at their oars, and were 
rewarded by capturing two boats and fourteen 
men. The latter were valuable prizes, in our 
lamentable state of ignorance, geographical 
and political ; and from them we learned that 
the vessel burnt was the Okhotsk, belong- 
ing to the Russian Fur Company, armed with 
eight guns, and trading with provisions be- 
tween Aian and PeterofFski, a small bay be- 
hind us. On this occasion, however, a master 
in the Russian navy had been ordered to 
pilot her into the Amur, which he had been 
already, with favourable winds, twelve days in 



INFORMATION GIVEN BY PRISONERS. 133 

accomplishing so far as to run her into a 
submarine cut de sac, twelve or thirteen miles 
distant from the mouth of the river. 

The brig only drew eight feet of water: 
this, compared with prior information and 
with our own experience of the currents and 
shoals, together with the prisoners' asseve- 
rations that there existed no passage for ships 
into the river Amur, and only by the Gulf 
of Tartary into the external gulf of the 
Amur, seemed to decide the question of 
the practicability of the northern channels ; 
and as the Okhotsk seamen were Fins, 
Germans, and Swedes, they soon became very 
communicative, and assured us that the Rus- 
sian squadron had been seen at anchor within 
the gulf of the Amur and on its eastern 
shore, three weeks previously, by the master 
of the navy who attempted to pilot the 
Okhotsk into the Amur, and who had 
lately been an officer of the Diana frigate. 
Their description of the enemy's squadron 
agreed with the opinions we had formed on 
seeing it in De Castries Bay; of the import- 
ance attached to which anchorage our further 
information afforded ampler evidence. 

K 3 



134 



BLOCKADE NOT STRICT. 



Every day accumulated proofs that the 
Gulf of Tartary should have been watched 
in force from the declaration of war ; and yet 
eighteen months subsequently, ammunition 
and provisions were passing upwards from 
China and Batavia unchallenged and unseized. 



135 



CHAP. VI. 

Steer towards Aian. — Fogs. — Arrival at Aian. — Its Ap- 
pearance. — Is deserted. — Land. — Information derived 
from chief Factor. — Dig for buried Guns and Stores. — 111 
Success of Search. — Find concealed China. — Use of 
Settlement to Russia. — The Natives. — Archbishop. — In- 
terview with him. — Barracouta leaves Squadron. — Re- 
turns with half of the Diana's shipwrecked Crew. — Sick 
Russians put on Shore. — Salmon and Trout caught. — 
Landing of Seamen. — Reflections. — Sail again for Cape 
Elizabeth. — Meet H. M. S. Encounter. — Southwards 
through Sea of Okhotsk. — Arrive at Aniwa Bay. — Skirt 
Shores of Sagalien, and Risiri and Rifunsiri Islands. — 
Conduct and Appearance of Russian Prisoners. — Distance 
at which Capes were visible. — Pass Matsmai. — Enter 
Sangar Straits. — Arrive at Hakodadi. 

The water is cold in this sea ; even at the 
end of July it was seldom above 40° of 
Fahrenheit, so that a southerly wind was 
invariably attended by fog, whilst the chilly 
northerly breeze kept the temperature of the 
air much nearer that of the water, and con- 
sequently clearer. The fogs accompanied us 
to Aian, leaving us for three days the 
dreary prospect of a sea horizon of two 
or three hundred yards ; and the chilling 

K 4 



136 



APPROACH AIAN. 



drippings of the fog on the deck were the 
cheerless sounds which met the ear " from 
morn to dewy eve." It was impossible in 
these seas, whose currents were unknown, 
without midday observations to have a tolera- 
bly accurate idea of the ship's position; 
and still former experience dictated a bold 
seeking of the shore as the safest method 
of gaining the harbour sought for; so in a 
thick fog on the 2nd of August the Sibylle 
daringly ran on until a rocky, iron- 
bound coast presented itself, rising clearly 
with a bright sun shining over it, and 
seen from a distance of four or five miles. 
The seamen of the Okhotsk did not at first 
recognise it : a gradual advance, however, 
soon recalled to them the striking and 
picturesque features of the harbour they had 
so lately quitted — Aian. 

It is a shallow and narrow inlet, broken 
by projecting points, or rocks, into three 
small basins — the exterior being a roadstead, 
and the innermost only fit for steamers and 
small vessels ; indeed the whole aspect of the 
harbour resembled more an artist's study of 
Highland lake scenery than the proud em- 
porium of Siberian trade, for the defence 



APPEARANCE OF AIAN. 



137 



of which all the resources of Russian en- 
gineering had been lavished ! The latter was 
represented by three slight earthen batteries 
en banquette, which a steam corvette ought 
to have silenced successively in a quarter 
of an hour if the neighbouring heights 
had not been occupied ; and yet it was before 
similar batteries constructed by the Russian 
seamen of a frigate and a transport, designed 
by naval officers, and built under their 
superintendence, that the allied squadron 
suffered the ignominious repulse of Petro- 
paulski ! 

No wonder that the Russians are proud! 
The war found the professions dedicated to 
war ready for war ; and whether at Sebas- 
topol, or at the extremities of the empire in 
the East, professional talent and command 
were found combined ; whilst Cronstadt has 
defied menace, and Sveabourg has only been 
bombarded at a distance. Dare any English 
officer of reputation prophesy the same of 
Gibraltar or of Malta ? The enemy has taught 
us a lesson ; I trust that professional bigotry 
will allow us to benefit by it. 

An American whale ship was at anchor 



138 



VISIT THE SETTLEMENT. 



in the inner harbour : her master came off, 
and informed us that since the departure 
of the first English squadron nothing had 
changed in the port ; and that it was still 
deserted. We landed, and saw a large 
storehouse, and a pier belonging to the 
Russian Fur Company, as two Americans 
living in it informed us. We strolled through 
the small settlement, consisting of six separate 
wooden houses in a row, with a small Greek 
church at the end of the village ; and senti- 
ments of pity for the women and children 
who had been driven by fear from this rude 
settlement into the adjoining forests were 
the predominant feelings of alL The disposi- 
tion and the judgment of the Commodore, I 
presume, alike led him to promise the strictest 
adherence to the proclamation inviting the 
return of the inhabitants, issued by the 
commander of the first squadron which visited 
the port : the houses unfortunately had in 
the interim been ruthlessly rifled by the 
crews of two whale ships, the names of which 
are known ; and I trust the honour of an 
adventurous and daring profession will lead 
those engaged in it to take the proper steps 



ARCHBISHOP OF EASTERN SIBERIA. 139 

to prevent a recurrence of so barbarous an 
outrage ; and as from three to four hundred 
American ships are so employed in this sea, the 
national honour is somewhat implicated. 

On our second visit, the German gentleman 
at the head of the factory and a Russian 
employe met us ; and it was distressing to 
observe the dread which, in spite of all pro- 
mises of protection, the presence of the squadron 
caused. These gentlemen opened their stores 
and houses for inspection : in one of the last 
the Archbishop of Eastern Siberia and of 
Russian America was living, and we were 
requested to visit him. We found a tall, 
handsome, and aged prelate, in the peculiarly 
becoming dress of his Church, with flowing- 
hair and beard of snowy whiteness : he re- 
ceived us with great courtesy and benignity. 
Conversation could only be carried on in 
Russian and English through the German 
chief factor's interpretership, as Greek and 
Latin were unknown to us for conversational 
purposes. The Archbishop thanked the 
Commodore for the security promised to Aian, 
and on wine, caviare, and biscuits being intro- 
duced, proposed the toast of " Speedy Peace." 



140 YAKUTS — THEIR APPEARANCE. 

He then very kindly offered to accompany us 
to the church, a plain little wooden edifice, 
with an altar surrounded by pictures of saints 
and of Madonnas ; bright and clear, though 
indifferent in design and execution. With 
some childish vanity he also produced his 
vestments and the symbols of his pastoral 
office, as in his house he had shown us a litho- 
graphic sketch of himself taken nearly twenty 
years previously by Sir Edward Belcher. 

We met a few of the Yakuts, who inhabit 
this extensive province to the number, I 
believe, of six or eight hundred thousand. 
They have Mongolian faces, dark hair and 
eyes, are of small stature and of a brown 
colour, and do not appear to be hardy, nor 
should I imagine them to be brave : a few 
militiamen permitted to be raised by the 
Fur Company suffice to keep the communica- 
tions open and the port secure. Bullocks 
are brought down in large droves every 
autumn, and a few furs are obtained also ; but 
the chief wealth of Aian is in the imports 
from Sitka and Russian America for the 
Chinese markets along the Amur. Most of 
the necessaries of civilised life are imported by 
the whale ships ; yet the place is sad, dreary, 



DREARINESS OF THE EXILE'S LIFE. 141 



and unhealthy; except, perhaps, when the 
four months' fog, called summer, is over, and 
intense cold and bright weather comes as a relief, 
and frost with great intensity reigns until May : 
then is the season of pleasure, the merry 
jingling of the sleigh bells, and rapid flight over 
the ice, affording animated amusement during 
the short daylight ; whilst within each room 
burns with unseen glow the Russian stove 
in all its cheerless magnitude. It is more 
Siberian than Siberia ; and to complete the 
desolateness of such exile, the only peaceful 
joy, " unexcised of kings," which comes to 
all, — domestic happiness, — is embittered at its 
springs, as children of European parents, how- 
ever healthy and pure their blood, born at 
Aian, are invariably scrofulous. The family 
of the gentleman who gave me this information 
was suffering from this calamity, and it seemed 
to fill up the measure of the regrets with 
which he looked back on his Fatherland. 

Intelligence of later date than ours had 
been received at Aian, and the Russian papers 
were placed in the hands of the Okhotsk's 
crew without our gaining much news beyond 
reported disastrous accidents to our men-of- 



142 



POST — HOW EECEIVED. 



war in the Baltic. The bulletin announcing 
the Emperor Nicholas' death had been re- 
ceived at Aian in forty-eight days : the 
quickest expresses, during good travelling 
weather, which includes the whole year with 
the exception of two months before the short 
summer and a month at its termination, gene- 
rally require about fifty days. Ordinarily the 
mail leaves St. Petersburg for Irkutsk twice 
a week ; between the latter and Yakutsk the 
communication is by the Lena twice a month ; 
and from thence, once a month, the forests 
and swamps extending for 800 miles, between 
Yakutsk and Aian, are crossed on horseback. 
The transport of a family, however, is a 
serious matter, as these last 800 miles can 
only be traversed on horseback, and food 
and baggage must be carried in the same 
manner, for villages and hamlets are " few 
and far between." The intelligent chief fac- 
tor assured us that for such an undertaking 
six months were requisite, and dilated on the 
agremens of the cities passed en route, espe- 
cially particularising the beauty, extent, and 
population of the capital of Eastern Siberia — 
Irkutsk,— with its immense agricultural and 



SEARCH FOR BURIED GUNS. 



143 



mineral resources. This subject I afterwards 
found the Russian officers and employes very 
fond of enlarging on, taking great pains to 
assure us of the value and salubrity of Southern 
Siberia-, and that it was the great field of geo- 
graphical enterprise in Russia, and one so 
popular that large funds were at the disposal 
of the societies formed to prosecute discoveries 
in Central and Eastern Asm. 

The Okhotsk brig had been lying in the 
harbour during the disarmament of its three 
small batteries, consequent on orders received 
in January last, which directed that Petro- 
paulski and all the small ports and settle- 
ments were to be immediately disarmed, and 
were to be temporarily evacuated on the 
approach of any enemy's vessels. There was 
some precaution taken that the crew of Fins, 
Swedes, and Germans should not be aware of 
the places where the guns were buried ; yet 
one of the Swedes imagined that he could 
point out the spots he had seen working- 
parties busy at. Seamen and armed marines 
were therefore landed to search for these 
valuable deposits ; yet want of success at- 
tended all the efforts to discover them, which 



144 FIND CHINA AND WALRUS' TEETH. 

occupied two days, and were carried on over 
some extent of ground, — quite enough to re- 
veal the danger of landing seamen to act in 
bodies, and to palliate one of the inexplicable 
mistakes made last year at Petropaulski. 

The search for arms being hopeless, the 
seamen were led into the settlement, in the 
gardens of which provisions and stores were 
supposed to be buried. In a very few 
minutes the pickaxes struck against planks, 
and the excitement immediately rose to a great 
height. An opening, however, exposed to view 
large quantities of English and German china, 
glasses, and flower vases ! A neighbouring 
row, apparently of potatoes, on being dug up, 
exhibited hundreds of walrus' teeth ! We 
were evidently interfering with the retail 
trade of the Fur Company, and it was there- 
fore determined to give up any further search, 
and to send the seamen on board. The poor 
chief factor was almost au desespoir in seeing 
the exposure and consequent almost necessary 
destruction of property so valuable to the 
unhappy settlers in the forests of Siberia ; and 
it was with a becoming sense of disgrace that 
I saw his quick glance resting on the swollen 



RETURN OF H.M.S. BARRACOUTA. 145 



frock-fronts of a few thieving tars, whose 
conduct contrasted sadly with the general 
noble bearing of the seamen, and with the 
spirit of the orders which English officers 
must give on such occasions. The chief 
factor subsequently, with the impulse of a 
generous nature, took every opportunity of 
expressing his gratitude, and repeated it to 
the amiable and accomplished French Com- 
modore, upon receiving promises of protection, 
made in the urbane and delicate terms so 
natural to our gallant allies. 

A higher state of excitement arose on board 
on the 3rd of August, on a steamer, with a 
vessel in tow, emerging from the more than 
usually distant fog. It could only be one of 
the allied steamers, and the ship towed must 
be a prize ; the latter was soon seen to be a 
brig. Presently signals were exchanged, and 
busy rumours stated that the Barracouta, 
which had left our squadron for Japan on the 
29th of July, had taken 280 prisoners. That 
fine vessel soon passed over the intervening 
space, — a boat was lowered, the commander 
came on board, — and gradually it was known 
to all that half of the shipwrecked crew of the 

L 



146 RUSSIAN SAILORS TAKEN PRISONERS. 

Russian frigate Diana had been found at sea, 
within a few hours' sail of their own territories, 
on board a small Bremen brig. 

As the fog had lifted for a short interval, 
the brig had been seen. Brigs and schooners 
in these seas are almost unknown for com- 
mercial purposes. She was boarded, and her 
cargo ascertained ; and she was hardly taken 
in tow when the fog set in, and continued 
until the vessels came "off" Aian, in twenty- 
eight hours, — a most brilliant feat in towing ; 
and glad, I suspect, the zealous and active 
commander was to see two English frigates 
ready to relieve him of some of his prisoners, 
who much more than doubled the number of 
able-bodied men in his crew. 

The first lieutenant of the late Diana, 
bearing the illustrious name of the Russian 
poet, Mouschin Pouschkin, came with an 
exposition of his case, in the hope, as he 
openly stated in conversation, of being per- 
mitted to land at Aian, under the condition of 
not serving again against the allies, until 
regularly exchanged. The energy and zeal 
with which he pleaded his shipwreck on an 
inhospitable coast, the six months' detention 



SICK PKISONERS LANDED. 



147 



there, the unarmed condition of the brig, the 
Russian prisoners being also unarmed, and 
his idea that as Aian was an unfortified 
commercial place belonging to the Fur Com- 
pany there could be no objection to landing 
the shipwrecked seamen, if it did not succeed 
in gaining his end, obtained for him the ad- 
miration and respect of those who listened to 
his nervous and elegant French. 

I was delighted to find that contrary to the 
severe and somewhat barbarous a orders 7 ■ 
and " regulations," the priest, surgeon, and 
sick were to be landed and placed under 
the charge of the chief factor, and that a 
letter was to be sent to the governor of the 
province, acquainting him with the fact, and 
requesting that if any of the men so landed 
should recover, they should not be permitted 
to serve against the allies until regularly 
exchanged. Subsequently I blushed to find 
that the French code, as far as it respects pri- 
soners, was more civilised and chivalrous, as it 
expressly requires the speediest practicable re- 
lease of all non-combatants, — women, priests, 
and civilians. A learned Russian, who had 
for five years been the chief of the Russian 

L 2 



148 APPEARANCE OF RUSSIAN SAILORS. 



College at Pekin, — had subsequently served as 
interpreter in Japan to Admiral Puniatin's 
late mission, — was a counsellor of the Empire, 
— and spoke or read most living tongues, was 
unfortunate enough to find himself excluded 
by the " orders " and " regulations." 

The frigates received their share of the 
prisoners, and the Barracouta again set off 
for the south with the two lieutenants, the 
councillor, and about 100 seamen. The per- 
sonal appearance of the Russians was soldier- 
like more than seaman-like ; they were uni- 
formly tall, strong, well-made men, who had 
served from seven to fourteen years, and had 
the erect gait and orderly discipline of troops 
of the line : indeed, that discipline was so 
effective, that in three months I never heard, 
in the gossiping chit-chat of quarter-deck 
strolls, any allusion to an irregularity on the 
part of the prisoners. 

The fogs did not always respect the port of 
Aian, and though they very rarely covered it 
completely, they frequently veiled portions of 
it for short intervals, and thus occasioned 
peculiar effects of light and shade I have sel- 
dom seen elsewhere : the small bays in each 
# 



NATUKE OF SOIL AND CLIMATE. 149 

harbour tempted seining parties every day, 
and they were generally successful, catching 
several large white sea trout of from twelve to 
nineteen pounds weight, as well as great 
numbers of a species of salmon varying from 
three to five pounds weight. 

The soil immediately near the numerous 
streams appears good : want of summer and 
sun will prevent any crops ripening until a 
general colonisation of these countries has im- 
proved the climate, and even then I fear there 
would be a difficulty in raising sufficient food. 
Wild rhubarb grows in large quantities, and 
we relished rhubarb tarts exceedingly, as 
vegetables and fruit were scarce commodi- 
ties ; whilst for the men, who were beginning 
to feel the effects of the unusually long 
cruise, its efficacy as an antiscorbutic was 
valuable indeed. Numerous wild flowers also 
cover the ground unoccupied by fir, birch, or 
brushwood ; and there seemed a mockery of 
nature in the profusion with which the little 
1 1 forget-me-nots " were scattered in so wild 
and bleak a country, of which, during a ten 
days' residence, we never once got a full and 
perfect view, one picturesque portion rising 

L 3 



150 ICE-BOUND SHORES IN AUGUST. 



into sight one day, to be veiled again by fog 
for several subsequent ones. 

The Hornet rejoined us on the 6th August, 
having ineffectually endeavoured with the 
frigate La Constantine to reconnoitre the 
Shantarsk Isles and the bays to the south and 
west of them, which were even at this season 
so ice-bound that the steam corvette could 
not enter them. Intelligence was sent them 
that some of the whale ships were lost on the 
ice. La Constantine was close to the port on 
the 6th : wisely careful, her commander did 
not like " standing on " for the shore, and 
many days were passed in reaching positions 
within four or six miles of the Bay, whilst 
"standing off" was the order of the night. 
How much longer this baffling proceeding 
might have lasted is doubtful, if the masts 
of La Constantine had not fortunately been 
caught sight of on the 12 th, rising above the 
fog, when a boat was instantly despatched to 
aid her in coming into a harbour so near her, 
which could not be seen from her deck or 
yards. 

At daylight on the 1 3th August the frigate 
and corvette weighed anchor, and in an hour 



RETREAT TO THE SOUTH. 151 

were once more thoroughly enveloped in fog, 
with their figure heads peering through it 
southwardly ; and, disappointed as were all 
the high hopes of entering the Amur by the 
northern channel, and of encountering the 
enemy in their own waters and under the 
cover of their batteries, still a sense of proxi- 
mate relief from wet fogs and cheerless cold 
days served to mitigate the bitter feelings 
which frustrated zeal, inaction, desultory plans, 
and ill success had gradually sown in breasts 
glowing with the "noblest longing for the 
strife " a leader could desire. Silently and 
dully the ships proceeded southwards, a damp 
veil often hiding them from each other ; but 
a momentary raising up of the fog usually 
proved how perfect the discipline was which, 
for so many weeks, had kept the squadron 
together in unknown and mist-covered seas. 
On the 16th one of our consorts, lately de- 
spatched to a rendezvous to pick up any vessel 
sent there, was seen at anchor close to a 
steamer ; the usual quick, signals passed, and 
it was ere long known to all that H. M. S. En- 
counter had arrived from Hakodadi, where 
the Admiral's ship had been quietly flying 

L 4 



152 



FRESH PROVISIONS. 



since the rare northerly breeze had wafted it 
from the enemy's waters. There were no 
letters, no papers, no provisions for us: for 
the French small squadron some bullocks and 
other necessaries were brought, as their Com- 
modore had, with national military " pre- 
voyance," freighted a transport to convey 
provisions and live stock to Hakodadi, from 
whence the Encounter carried them ; and it 
will scarcely be credited that the only fresh 
meat eaten in six months by our squadron 
was owing to the generous courtesy of the 
French officers in command. 

Light airs and a clear sky were a delightful 
change for a day or two, off the eastern coast 
of Sagalien. Just as the ships became once 
more dry, the fogs returned, with steady 
southerly winds, — similar to the constant 
breezes we experienced in the Sea of Japan 
and Gulf of Tartary ; so constant, indeed, as 
to lead to the conclusion that the Chinese 
monsoons extend nearly up to lat. 50°. Above 
that zone, easterly and northerly winds are 
prevalent in summer ; in winter the north- 
west gales blow with great violence from the 
highest latitude we reached, 54° 30', down to 



NERVE REQUIRED IN SUCH NAVIGATION. 153 



the southern extremity of Nipon, as was 
plainly visible in the direction of the growth 
of trees, and in the extensive land- slips along 
the western shores of the islands of Sagalien, 
Yezzo, and Nipon. 

At daylight on the 22nd August, one of 
those clear and distant views noticed by La 
Perouse as peculiar to this climate and region, 
enabled us to get a glimpse of land on all 
sides of us, and decided our position to be in 
the straits named after that distinguished dis- 
coverer of them, and almost equidistant from 
the two shores of Aniwa Bay. Nerve, decision, 
and activity, are required in those who navi- 
gate these seas ; fortunately, the Commodore 
was of that age at which these are still the 
distinguishing traits of a manly character, 
and during our whole cruise they were as 
apparent as the cool judgment which, whilst 
fully recognising dangers, steadily pursued its 
ends, only so modifying the means of attaining 
them as to secure them. How different from 
the imbecile waverings of aged indecision in 
its effects upon subordinates ! leaving no taint 
of dishonour on ill success, and commanding 



154 



STILL FURTHER RETREATS. 



affection and admiration under circumstances 
of lingering inactivity ! 

The Spartan was left in Aniwa Bay to 
communicate with La Constantine, and ru- 
mours were rife of a still further retreat to 
the southward, instead of the expected per- 
mission to attempt once more the passage into 
the Amur by the Gulf of Tartary, which, it was 
whispered, was very strongly advocated by 
the French Commodore. It was to convey to 
that officer these bad tidings that the Spartan 
was left behind, as was subsequently the 
rational deduction made by all ; for, right or 
wrong, the actions, and still more the inaction, 
of their chiefs are freely commented on by 
seamen as well as soldiers. 

A fine bright morning, and light fleecy 
Englishdike clouds, floating slowly over the 
clear blue sky, gave beauty to the last view of 
Sagalien, as we passed close to its undulating 
banks and wooded hills on the 23rd, and raised 
a desire to occupy one of the numerous little 
huts prettily placed near the rivers and sur- 
rounded by virgin soil and unviolated forests, 
— a desire often excited on viewing similar 
scenery in the western hemisphere after a short 



RESIGNATION OF THE RUSSIAN OFFICERS. 155 



absence from towns and civilisation, but now 
evoked by the cheering home-like scenery 
presented to us, after so many days of dreary 
navigation, and only yielding to the assuring 
sentiment that at last I was en route homewards, 
and was so far happier than the accomplished 
Russian officers on board ; who, ever ready to 
join in conversation or in amusement, rarely 
permitted any complaint to escape them, 
though almost in their own waters. On some 
topics their flow of conversation was most 
agreeable, and in none more so than when 
its current ran through the details of Russian 
private life, or touched the noble patriotism 
which the mention of the name of their late 
Czar immediately raised. Indeed, the enthu- 
siastic admiration felt for Nicholas L was for 
the magnificent impersonation of Russia's might 
and majesty. " L' etat c'est moi," with him, 
was no boast, and still, amongst the younger 
well-born officers, his name is mentioned with 
reverential respect. 

We were soon again entering the Sea of 
Japan, passing between the long, low, finely 
swelling shores of Rifunsiri and the ro- 
mantic volcanic island of Risiri, the battle- 



156 FINE CLIMATE IN SUMMER. 

merited crest of which, formed of huge red 
rocks, surmounted large woods and green 
slopes, and gleamed like a Moorish fortress 
in the Sierra Nevada. The weather became 
warmer each day as we proceeded south- 
wards, and clear blue skies, soft balmy airs, 
and the lake-like waves of this inland sea, 
were as constant as the less agreeable fogs of 
the Northern Sea had been. The evenings 
were peculiarly mild though fresh, resembling 
those of early summer in the Mediterranean, 
or the first bright nights of the Indian 
summer in America. The stars shone less 
large, perhaps, than in the tropics before 
us, yet were quite as " clearly set " in the 
heavens; so much so, that after w r atching the 
satellites of Jupiter with an opera-glass, fancy 
or memory-assisted sight, placed them around 
their primary long after the glass had been 
withdrawn. In such delightful weather the 
four days' sail down the western shore was 
most charming, and as occasionally the ex- 
tinct volcanos of the interior were visible at 
increased distances, there was as much to 
interest the mind as to gratify the eye ; the 
thickly wooded island of Kisiri was again 



NIGHT IN THE STRAITS OF SANGUR. 157 

passed, and the pretty picturesque city of 
Matsmai " rising out of the dark blue sea " 
once more caused all the glasses to be turned 
on it, anxiously seeking the hidden details 
of the peculiarly striking scene. 

The swift current bore us rapidly on, and 
the well-remembered capes of the Strait of 
Sangur quickly appeared on either bow. We 
were carried rather too near the bold rocky 
bluffs of the northern shore, and were for 
some time becalmed under the lofty chain of 
hills, just before sunset on the 28th August, and 
as the numerous fishing boats of a hamlet near 
us were steering out for their night's labours ; 
light airs kept us from the anchorage, and 
silently we drifted into the fast-flowing cur- 
rent in the centre of the straits, from which, 
under the bright rays of a brilliant moon, the 
fine features of this mountainous coast were 
seen beautifully softened. In such moments 
the remarks of Madame de Stael on solitude 
recur, and the wish that the fair scene should 
be enjoyed by distant friends is uppermost. 
Any enjoyments, however, of such scenes 
" 1st Lohn der reichlich lohnet," as Gothe 
said of his own art, and tempts those wanting 



158 



TEMPTATIONS TO REVERIE. 



" the faculty divine " and noble "accomplish- 
ment of verse," to waste the midnight hours 
in voiceless reverie, soothed by the melody of 
the starlit waters rippling past the ship, — 
a temptation generally irresistible, when the 
breeze is steady and fair, the sails all set for 
the night, the watch fast asleep on the deck, 
and the deep silence is unbroken, save by the 
monotonous pacing of the officer of the watch, 
and the occasional cheering " All 's well ! " of 
the " look-outs." 



CHANGE OE PROSPECT. 



159 



CHAP. VII. 

Visit of Harbour Master. — The Comings and Goings of the 
Ships confuse him. — Changed Appearance of the Port. — 
Proceed into the Country in Boats. — Villages continuous. 

— Inhabitants civil. — Fly-fishing. — Astonishment of the 
Natives. — Matrons and Maids. — Early Marriages. — Visit 
to Governor. — The Garden of the Temple. — French 
Sick lodged in a Temple. — Its Priest. — Apparent essential 
Ceremonies. — Tea-gardens and Books. — Freedom permitted 
to unmarried Women. — The Governor visits the Frigate. — 
Betinue and State. — " The Illustrated News " invariably 
chief Topic of Conversation. — European Ladies' Dresses 
and Dancing incomprehensible. — Ideas of Architecture. — 
Luncheon. — Habits of Eating. — Powers of Drinking. — 
Curiosity and Intelligence of Governor. — Differences of 
Costume between Chinese and Japanese. — Walk into the 
Country. — Island of Yezzo. — Late Conquest by Japanese. 

— Interior inhabited by Ainos. — Description of Ainos. — 
Wealth of Country. 

How changed was the prospect around us, 
since we last saw it in the beginning of May ! 
Winter was then retreating hesitatingly, 
leaving the traces of its snowy footsteps on 
each mountain top, where now rich vegetation 
blooms; and near us are grassy slopes browned 
by the summer sun, and above them the woods 



160 



CHANGES IN THE HARBOUR. 



wnd green and flourishing, far up the moun- 
tain sides. In the harbour itself no less changes 
are visible : instead of a few small junks mal- 
odorous with their freight of fish, we now 
behold numerous larger junks almost " blotting 
out " the wharves, whilst the frequent plying 
of boats between the junks and the shore, 
proves the greater commercial activity of the 
port. 

The official boat, too, now in its progress 
towards us, was new and of better construction, 
and manned by the same singing crew, only 
now denuded of clothing, save a narrow strip of 
cotton round the loins. From its little covered 
cabin chamber emerged our old acquaintance, 
the astute-looking harbour master, from amidst 
his prostrated followers, and " landed " on the 
deck, in all the gayest and lightest summer 
fashions of Japan, — quaker-coloured crapes of 
thinnest texture, and finest silks of perfectly 
toned colours composing the dress ; each robe 
was semi-transparent, and rendered present- 
able by there being double suits. Fans, too, 
came now into use, and kept in as frequent agi- 
tation as the same pretty vehicles of flirtation are 
by the most exquisite " Majas " of Andalusia. 



VESSELS IN JAPANESE PORTS. 161 

A well filled book had replaced the scraps 
of paper used as the record of the shipping in 
port, and numerous were the inquiries of the 
whereabouts of the several frigates of the allied 
squadrons. To the uninitiated, the frequent 
comings and goings of single ships, or of very 
weak squadrons, seemed unintelligible, but 
when we heard that four fifty-gun frigates, and 
one fine forty, had gone lately on a cruise, 
hopes again were high that, though unsuc- 
cessful ourselves, because never in the right 
place save once, when we were too weak to 
attack a larger force in a strong position, so 
fine a squadron of frigates, with one steamer, 
must have been directed against the only 
coast defences still armed against us, and near 
which the enemy's squadron were known to be 
lying ; and the evident apprehensions of such 
a proceeding in the minds of the Russian 
officers was transparent through the wit with 
which they veiled them, and though they 
laughingly inquired "Why so many large 
frigates ? We have one and a corvette ! " Two 
steam corvettes were in the harbour near us, 
and we subsequently found that two other 
steamers had been lying in Nagasaki for many 

M 



162 EXPECTATIONS DISAPPOINTED. 

weeks ; unhappily our expectations were doomed 
to be again disappointed, for this fine squadron 
of frigates went to the southern shores of Tartary 
instead of to the north, and consumed months 
in rough surveys and rougher geologising, 
which might have been better spent in trying 
to acquire some knowledge of the enemy's 
stronghold in the Amur. June and July were 
frittered away, and now August and September, 
the remains of the summer, were to be passed 
in performing that which could have been 
done years ago as easily as under present cir- 
cumstances. 

To return to our visitor, the harbour- 
master, who diplomatically endeavoured to 
elicit the fruits of our campaign ; and though 
he failed himself, his adjutants, scampering in 
their lame fashion about the vessels, probably 
acquired all the information needed by the 
Japanese government. He made the old dif- 
ficulties about furnishing supplies of fresh 
meat, and the old promises of sending fish 
and fruits and vegetables, regretting that the 
number of vessels which had visited Hako- 
dadi had greatly diminished the amount 
of their supplies. He was commissioned to 



WATER-TANK USED. 



163 



take the Commodore's compliments to the 
governor, and the expression of his desire to 
pay his respects to him in person ; and 
departed after the usual smoking of the tiny 
pipes, the customary cups of tea with the 
much relished sugar, and the glass of sherry 
or sweet wine, which usually completed the 
measure of the visitor's anticipated joys. 

Amongst other improvements we recognised 
a water tank coming alongside, to the great 
contentment of the zealous first lieutenant, to 
whom the frequent delays and lingering lazi- 
ness of the Japanese in furnishing supplies 
must have caused many annoyances. 

The weather was very hot, though the ther- 
mometer did not range higher than 80°, but 
the sun's rays were so powerful that our walks 
on shore were limited to afternoon strolls. We 
found that the frequent arrival of new ships 
had effected changes even in the official recep- 
tion of Europeans, for the country people had 
always been civil and good-tempered. At 
our former visit, as the first English ships 
seen, we had felt a few restrictions press 
rather severely on us, and although we were 

M 2 



164 PEASANTKY ACCUSTOMED TO EUROPEANS. 

indebted to the earlier and longer residence 
of the Americans for the good-humoured 
evading of regulations to which the Japanese 
had become accustomed, still something was 
done to prove to the governor that further 
freedom of intercourse would not be fraught 
with danger to the Japanese, and during our 
absence, the amiability and pleasing manners 
of the veteran admiral had evidently won upon 
the authorities, who are apparently as refined 
courtiers as astute diplomats. 

Our first notions of the content, compara- 
tive ease and comfort of the peasantry were 
confirmed by the experience gained in several 
walks into the country round the Bay. The 
round, rosy, laughing faces of the white-teethed 
girls were never withdrawn from the window 
as we passed, nor would they move their 
buxom persons far aside as we passed them in 
the narrow paths or wide roads : and the 
mothers, often of a Sarah-like age, would not 
refrain from the performance of their maternal 
duties on seeing us approach, but, followed by 
their young brood, would smile in ghastly 
guise, showing their teeth and gums, so 
blackened as to have the appearance of tooth- 



ASCEND A RIVER. 



165 



lessness. Boys in a state of nudity, and men 
robed only in long dressing-gowns, thronged 
the doors of the villages, saluting us with 
jokes, which from the expression of their 
honest and merry faces could not be un- 
civil. 

We ascended a small river flowing into the 
western and furthest side of the Bay for three 
or four miles : its banks were for some dis- 
tance covered with cottages set in gardens, and 
the population came out in numbers to see 
the men-of-war's boats pulling up the stream. 
Some would demand " Englishee ? " others 
" Amerikee?" The answer was re-echoed with 
delight, and some laughter at the strangeness 
of our tongue and of our dress: the astonish- 
ment was heightened as they saw the Commo- 
dore, rod in hand, throwing an occasional cast 
into the good-looking pools and runs of the 
river, and exceeded all bounds when, excited by 
the ardour of the sport, he quietly waded across 
or down the river, an exertion on the part of 
a " high officer," as they term superior officers, 
quite astounding, and unhappily, as the skill 
of the accomplished fisherman could not tempt 
any good-sized fish to " rise," I fear that 

M 3 



166 



FEW TROUT CAUGHT. 



the Japanese fisherman we saw quietly bobbing 
for small fish will not recommend the more 
artistic gear of the Tweed to his fellow- 
countrymen. The paucity of trout caught 
during the whole cruise is hardly accountable : 
the coasts swarm with salmon, yet the most 
"likely" trout streams never gave a respectable 
dish of trout, and most were well " thrashed " 
without a trout being seen, and many of the 
fishers were keen veterans of the art. 

The greediness to acquire English had 
augmented during our absence, and it was a 
common practice with men and boys, more 
particularly the latter, to arrest the passer-by, 
and pointing to some object pronounce 
" Nipon-Sima," that is, Japanese-island, 
" Englishee?" which when given was repeated 
with joy, as if a treasure had been picked up : 
several boys had acquired many phrases, and 
were very proud of their proficiency in 
speaking English. In our strolls along the 
river, we saw willows, dwarf oaks, the wild 
vine, wild pinks, roses, raspberries, and 
amongst other vegetable crops recognised 
potatoes, beans and peas, and gigantic 
radishes, and we disturbed many duck, teal, 
bittern and snipe. 



VISIT TO THE GOVERNOR. 167 

On the second day of our being at anchor, 
the governor intimated that he would be 
happy to receive the Commodore's visit on the 
following day, when accordingly the captains 
of the ships and other officers proceeded to 
the temple, in which His Excellency still lived, 
and were received without as much state as 
on the first occasion. On entering the old 
audience-room, to which we were conducted, we 
saw the benevolent and intelligent face of our 
old friend the deputy-governor, who greeted us 
very warmly. We recognised also several other 
" high officers : " and we were seating ourselves 
on the bench, with red cloth facing our hosts, 
when the governor entered, looking fresher 
and stronger than formerly, and after having 
bowed in succession to each visitor, he begged 
us to be seated. The usual compliments passed 
between the host and the guests, and tobacco 
and pipes, tea, fruits and sweetmeats were in- 
troduced in the regular order; saki, or fer- 
mented rice, was handed round ; a sweeter 
fermentation of rice followed ; and lastly a 
brandy from corn, I believe, was given to us, 
resembling in- colour, strength, and taste, 
spirits of wine. The governor drank heartily 

M 4 



168 



TEMPLE GARDEN. 



of the two latter beverages, and one or two 
of his guests carried their complaisance so far 
as to imitate him. When the intercourse was 
drawing to some length, without any intelli- 
gence being obtainable on either side, a move 
was made into the garden of the temple, the 
governor excusing himself, on account of 
health, from accompanying us : it was a little 
space, in which dwarfed trees, a few flowers, and 
a very delicate species of cedar grew, and one 
of the innumerable garden-plots a la Japonnaise 
in the midst of a city which give a peculiarly 
pleasing expression to all views of Japanese 
towns : a short stay exhausted the beauties of 
the temple garden, and we passed again into 
the audience room to bid His Excellency the 
O'Bunyu (governor) good-bye. 

We subsequently visited another temple, 
in one of the outbuildings of which the 
scurvy infected portion of the crew of La 
Sibylle were quartered with an ens eigne de 
vaisseau and an assistant surgeon. A portion 
of the one-storied building had been boarded 
off and divided into two compartments, one 
of about twenty by twenty-five feet for the 
sailors, and the other for the two officers, of 



FRENCH SICK IN A TEMPLE. 169 



much smaller size. At first there was an 
inclination on the part of the authorities to 
shut them in so completely that they could 
see nothing nor be seen themselves: a re- 
monstrance defeated the contemplated isolation, 
and they were then guarded by troops posted at 
the gates of the temple : they were watched 
by spies a la Japonnaise, day and night, and 
were not as well treated as Europeans when ill 
expect ; and there was difficulty in procuring 
fowls for them, though vegetables were supplied 
in tolerable sufficiency. The intelligent me- 
dical officer had wisely made a friend of the 
chief priest of the city, who lodged in this 
temple, and by this channel contrived to 
obtain many small comforts for his men, as 
well as much valuable information concerning 
the state of medical and religious knowledge, 
which I hope will be communicated by him. 

As far as I understood him, both religious 
and medical rites were simple: listening to 
the continuous beat of a small drum is the 
chief. Should the complaint be in the head, a 
female drummer places the instrument as 
near the burning brain as possible, and drums 
away, — every now and then contributing a long 



170 



MEDICAL TREATMENT. 



and monotonous song : the effects supposed 
to be caused are either the awakening of the 
slumbering deity, or driving away the offended 
demon. I need hardly add, that recoveries 
from violent disorders are rare, unless 
youth and a strong constitution enable the 
invalid to defy the tortures of the drum. 

The priests and doctors have much in 
common in their dress ; both have their heads 
shaven close all round — both orders were well 
fed, and the doctors richly dressed — wealth 
being the priests' counterpoise for the negli- 
gence of apparel. The doctors are attached 
to the households of the great dignitaries, and 
wear the crests of the magnates on their 
crape and silk robes, and those I saw were 
clever-looking and inquisitive ; their religious 
brethren, on the contrary, were rather stolid 
in expression, and very fat. In one temple 
we saw a robust priest in the usual J apanese 
sitting posture, — which by the way is so un- 
comfortable that frequently changes of position 
are necessary, and none but strong men can 
remain long in it without great inconvenience. 
The knees are well bent, and the sitter re- 
poses on the soles of his feet, and hides them 



PRIEST IN THE TEMPLE. 



171 



completely by the folds of his petticoat 
trowsers, or by the long robes in the cases of 
priests and peasants. It is a great breach of 
politeness to expose the feet whilst sitting, — 
a few years' compliance with which fashion 
enlarges the knee joints to deformity, and 
impedes the walking powers. This priest was 
so seated in a corner, and a small mosquito- 
net cage enclosed him, whilst a manuscript of 
Bhuddistic lore reposed on his knees: self- 
complacent in the silence of the deserted 
temple, he looked the impersonation of in- 
dolent friarhood ! As soon as we crossed 
the threshold, he rose, and with great good- 
nature proceeded to show us some miniature 
idols near him, of no great value, artistic or 
material, but which were evidently held in 
great respect ; dishes of fish and rice, which 
are daily brought to the temples by the laity, 
lay beside him, and a small charcoal fire, tea- 
cups and tea-pots of course were within his 
reach. 

The people at this season lived more in 
the open air than at the chillier period of 
our former visit, and some religious fetes 
were coming to a conclusion; so that both 



172 TEA-GARDENS PROVOKE INTOXICATION. 



causes may have combined to render them 
more gay, and I am sorry to add more ad- 
dicted to intoxication, which was not confined 
to the male sex : the tea gardens are, I 
suspect, the resort of the young and gay 
of both sexes, and from all I heard are quite 
as important a feature in the domestic 
manners of the Japanese as the Dutch writers 
represent them to be. I never saw a black- 
toothed woman returning from them, which 
may be an accidental circumstance, although 
I dare say that well-known and difiicultly-hid 
emblem of matronhood is sufficient to deter the 
most eager votary of pleasure : this defigure- 
ment is a sad thing for the wives and widows 
of Japan, — perhaps worse than the blackened 
matrimonial visages of Lhassa which the 
enterprising Pere Hue describes, for the latter 
could be made fair occasionally, and widow- 
hood would naturally resume its maiden com- 
plexion. 

Another extraordinary summer amusement 
is the promiscuous public bathing of both sexes 
of all ages : they enter a small room, barely 
fifteen feet square, and only partially screened 
from the remainder of the rooms, — with un- 



PUBLIC BATHS IN COMMON. 173 



curtained windows opening on the streets, — 
and close to the other inmates of the house, — 
pursuing their mechanical avocations, — and in 
perfect nudeness, perform all the operations 
of the bath, — wrinkled age and budding 
girlhood alike unabashed, surrounded and 
pressed on by senility, early manhood, and 
frolicsome childhood. 

Self-possession, quietness, and order reigned 
as paramount as in the salons of the most 
civilised people : curiosity fled quickly before 
the sensations such a scene naturally creates, 
though it led me to stand outside and watch 
the persons issuing and entering the small 
bathing-house ; and, without being able to pique 
myself on one and the least of the fortes of the 
Great Conde, that of detecting the condition 
of each passer-by, I saw enough to convince 
me that the bathers were not confined to the 
lowest or dissolute classes. 

The police effectually prevent all inter- 
course between Europeans and the fair Ja- 
panese, the loss of the head being the punish- 
ment fulminated against any one found 
conversing with an European, and all the 
gallantry of our allies quartered in the temple 



174 PROCESSION OF BOATS. 



was unavailing, I heard, to achieve a con- 
quest ; though perhaps, ere this, a roman from 
the prolific pen of some great French novelist 
may be issuing in some feuilleton at Paris 
to contradict the assertion, and be still more 
wondrous than the romantic amours of Dr. 
Yvan in Malaya, or the adventures described 
in " Vingts Annees aux Phillipines." 

The governor had promised to pay the 
Commodore a visit on the 6th, and accordingly 
at noon of that day a procession of boats 
was seen leaving the harbour-master's steps, 
and before they could be distinctly made out, 
the rude chorus of the boatmen was audible 
across the water : the long native boats were 
soon discovered to be towing a large gondola- 
like boat, in the bow of which were several 
spears and battle-axes indicative of the 
high rank of the official in it. Two other 
long boats towed a second large gondola 
with fewer spears in its bow, and half a 
dozen others, half towed and half towing, 
the former full of musqueteers and hal- 
berdiers, closed the rear. There was a slight 
swell; and as the labour and heat of the 
oarsmen increased, louder grew the discor- 



JAPANESE TROOPS. 



175 



dant and commingling songs of the crews. 
When the boats drew near, the aspects, 
bearing, and arms of the troops called our 
attention. They were stout, strong, middle- 
sized men with bronzed faces, and were clothed 
like the other Japanese, except that close- 
fitting cotton leggings replaced the petticoats 
of the officials ; that over their robes they 
wore cotton spensers adorned with hideous 
devices d la Chinoise, and had finely japanned 
conical hats with broad brims and with round 
tops of a deep red tint : their arms consisted of 
halberts or old-fashioned musquetoons, and 
would be inefficient against European troops ; 
but yet, on the whole, their appearance did not 
misbecome the descendants of the men who for 
a long period in earlier times had signalised 
themselves as soldiers of fortune in China and 
Corea. 

A part, indeed possibly no small part, of 
the difficulties attending the entrance of 
Europeans into Kiusu, of which Nagasaki is 
a small sea-port town, arises from the fact 
that Westerns are at first taken by the country 
people to be Coreans, from their wearing hats 
somewhat similar to the dark turbans of the 



176 THE GOVERNORS ARRIVAL. 



neighbouring Coreans, who were for long 
periods of early Japanese history subjects 
or revolted dependants, and for whom the 
Japanese entertain a rooted dislike mingled 
with contempt. 

But a nos moutons. The governor stepped 
from his comfortable, well-papered and fur- 
nished cabin, as soon as his boat was at the 
ship's side, and, — his crew on their knees,— 
mounted with apparent ease to the deck, where 
he was received by the Commodore and the 
officers of the frigate, dressed in their epau- 
letted uniforms, the marines presenting arms, 
and the band playing our national air: self- 
possessed and quiet he received the salute, 
as if accustomed to it, and then courteously 
paid some compliments to the Commodore and 
officers — through the interpreters por supuesto 
— and was ushered below. When he and his 
suite, — consisting of the three highest officers 
of the city, with four secretaries, a doctor, 
two interpreters, and two sword-bearers, to 
relieve each other in the constant upholding 
of the governor's long sword behind his back, 
•^-were, except the two latter persons, seated, 
which from their number and the limited 



VISIT FROM THE GOVERNOR. .177 

space the cabin offered, was no easy matter, 
the Commodore expressed " how happy he was 
to see His Excellency the O'Bunyu on board 
Her Majesty's ship: " to which the governor 
replied, that "he was very glad to have the 
opportunity of paying a visit in person, which 
his state of health had prevented on the former 
arrival of the Sibylle." A few questions were 
put, after the long series of complimentary in- 
quiries had been answered on both sides, 
which were replied to as prudence dic- 
tated by both " high officers." The cause of 
the length of the cruise and the names of 
places visited by the squadron were politely 
and adroitly demanded on the guest's part ; 
whilst the host was naturally eager to hear 
any intelligence concerning the enemy's move- 
ments. When this diplomatic fencing had 
lasted some time, the ever useful " Illustrated 
News " lying on the table caught the eye of 
the gallant deputy governor, and in a few 
minutes the dikes of ceremony and dignified 
reserve were overflowed by the warm interest 
which the graphic details of Inkerman and 
Balaclava inspired : each of the grand officials 
lost the low murmuring tones in which the 

N 



178 " THE ILLUSTRATED NEWS." 

audiences were carried on, and demanded in 
sudden and louder notes the country of 
overthrown horsemen or sabred gunners : 
tents, advancing squadrons, columns of infan- 
try were less easily comprehended. The like- 
ness of our gracious Queen and those of other 
reigning sovereigns were particularly and 
long admired : a spirited sketch of a Mansion 
House ball elicited endless inquiries ; the 
dresses of the ladies astonished them ; and the 
mystery of dancing was never fathomed; a 
view of the Covent Garden orchestra was ? 
despite of many luminous flashes of pantomi- 
mic wit, understood to represent a battle ; 
but that which most struck them, indeed the 
only beauty in architecture discoverable by 
them, was the height of buildings ; they 
counted the number of stories with ill-con- 
cealed scepticism. Happily I could not find 
a view of " Auld Reekie," or I should have 
been tempted to mutter " London," the only 
spot of English ground they honour ; for the 
usual query is "whether the officer lives in 
London," and if a negative is returned, good- 
breeding ineffectually endeavours to conceal 
the conviction that the responder is no " high 
officer." 



JAPANESE AT LUNCHEON. 179 

When the interview had lasted about half 
an hour, the guests were taken in to lun- 
cheon, and they sat down without much 
awkwardness, the governor keeping his inter- 
preter close to him, and the sword-bearer with 
sheathed and reversed sword behind him; — 
of each dish handed round to us a small 
portion was taken on their plates and tasted ; 
but our cuisine was not much to their gout. 
French rolls, pastry, fruit, tartlets, and dessert 
were most relished by the great man, who 
with good breeding ate with an apparent 
relish unattempted or unachieved by the gene- 
rality of his suite. Beer, claret, sherry and 
sweet wines were alternately drank by the 
governor, who invited the captains to take 
with him quite a VAnglaise, and after having 
drank many glasses of every liquid offered 
him, some Old Tom of great age was produced, 
and several glasses taken by him with great 
gusto : the other faces round the table became 
very red, for, like the Chinese, the Japanese 
blood becomes soon inflamed by spirituous 
liquors, and quickly unfolds in the countenance 
the ruddy ensign of Bacchus. The governor 
alone, to the last, displayed a calm, pale face, 

N 2 



180 



TOASTS GIVEN. 



though his potations had been longest and 
deepest, and was, with the chief interpreter, 
an exception to the general inexpertness in 
the use of knives and forks. 

After dinner the O'Bunyu was informed of 
our custom of drinking the health of our 
gracious sovereign, and on the toast being 
given, rose, imitated by his suite, deeming that 
the most respectful attitude to drink it in. 
The Commodore then " respectfully proposed 
the health of the Emperor of Japan;" upon 
which all again rose and drank the toast. 
The band, which had hitherto been playing 
morceaux, marches, and the national air, now 
commenced a series of pieces of dancing-music, 
and the heads of the " high officers " began 
to wag in time, — the first indication they had 
given that the music reached their ears. The 
manners of our guests at table were not un- 
pleasing, excepting in the particular instance 
of taking a roll of thin paper from the 
interior of the bosom of the robe, and delibe- 
rately separating a leaf, using it as a pocket- 
handkerchief, rolling it up, and then throwing 
it into a corner. Indian and Chinese silk 
handkerchiefs will, I trust, be soon introduced, 



SHREWDNESS OF THE GOVERNOR. 181 



as the custom is one of which they already see 
the ill-breeding. 

His Excellency, to my astonishment, im- 
mediately after luncheon reminded the Com- 
modore of the promise to show the ship, and 
proposed inspecting it at once. Immediately 
on entering the main- deck, he stopped at the 
first gun, and with great shrewdness asked 
several questions about the foundry of guns, 
the use of the gear about it, and, thoroughly 
understanding the loading, desired to see the 
tubes, and to be permitted to fire one ; which 
he did after stooping down and looking at the 
pointing : he then asked for one of the 
carbines which he saw in their places above 
his head, capped it, pointed it out of the 
port, and fired it. He made most pertinent 
inquiries concerning every object that struck 
him as he went round the ship, occasionally 
taking a roll of paper from the all capacious 
breast of the robe, and roughly sketching 
anything the manufacture of which he wished 
to have elucidated : 1 there was a calm dignity 
and good breeding in his method of eliciting 
information which was really admirable, and 
led us to attach weight to the interpreter's 

N 3 



182 



SIOGOON GOVERNS. 



report, that he was of the Siogoon family, and 
sent to Hakodadi on the part of that dignitary, 
who " governs " but does not " reign:" for no- 
minally at least the " Son of Light " reigns and 
the Siogoon governs, though even this power 
is held loosely by the present vicegerent, who 
is thought to be inimical to foreigners. 

When the inspection of the frigate had come to 
an end, the governor returned to the cabin, and 
became interested in several things exhibited 
to him. An aneroid and an atlas seemed to 
please him, and were presented to him with a 
short explanation of the utility of the instru- 
ment, which I dare say has long ere this been 
so often examined by Japanese philosophers 
a la violeta as to be useless. Cigars were not 
relished, though tasted out of complaisance, 
and generally taken away by the inferior offi- 
cials to show to their countrymen; but when- 
ever opportunity offered, a rustling of silks and 
satins was heard, and the invariable girdle 
ornament of leather tobacco case and bag pro- 
duced, and a small pipe-full smoked. As much 
of the reserve had by this time worn off with the 
satellites, the chief judge undertook to " show 
me a trick," and with many eyes upon him 



THE JUDGE'S SMOKING. 



183 



emitted smoke alternately from his nostrils 
and mouth. I endeavoured to imitate the 
humorous judge, but being no smoker, and one 
of those to whom the remark of a witty French 
commodore applies, who having weighty vices 
cannot bear the addition of light ones, I failed, 
to the intense delight and hearty laughter of our 
elated guests, of whom the doctor was the mer- 
riest. Whether he was less used to spirituous 
liquors than the rest, or that not being treated 
with respect by his superiors a certain amount 
of buffoonery was superinduced on the medical 
character, I could not ascertain: his closely 
shaven head gleamed over a countenance in 
which shrewdness, and perhaps the cunning of 
oppressed talent, were strangely mingled with 
good humour, and his face peered everywhere 
in quest of the novelties of the strangers. 

About five o'clock " the governor begged to 
take leave," and was received on the quarter- 
deck at his departure with the same honours as 
on his arrival, and when on the point of going 
over the side, he requested that " the Com- 
modore would give his thanks to the officers 
who had taken the trouble of attending on the 
quarter-deck." The procession of boats was 

N 4 



184 JAPANESE SILKS AND CRAPES. 

again formed, with all the accustomed vocifer- 
ations and songs, which slowly died on the ear 
as the authorities gained the shore. 

The Japanese silks and crapes, and the 
colours of both fabrics, are inferior to those of 
the Chinese : compared with the Celestials, it 
struck me that their robes are more classical 
and less angular ; their straw plaited shoe less 
useful than the very thick solid " article " 
which protects the Chinese foot from damp ; 
their small coloured cloth or cotton socks 
less cleanly than the long white stockings of 
their western cognates ; and their petticoat 
trowsers more cumbersome to walk in than 
the loose oriental garment gathered at the 
knee worn by the Chinese. The simplicity 
of their dress, its freedom from jewelry and 
embroidery, and the distinction of the high 
officials consisting very slightly in difference 
of costume, but only in superior cleanliness 
of the person and of their garments, were pleas- 
ing evidences of refinement, and an agreeable 
contrast to the gaudiness and grotesqueness 
of the peacock feathers, coloured buttons, 
and highly ornamented silks, so dear to the 
hearts of Chinese Mandarins. 



CONQUEST OF YEZZO. 



185 



There was also a manliness of port and a 
good-natured openness of countenance amongst 
the fishermen and peasantry pleasant to con- 
template. 

The island before us, Yezzo, was a later 
acquisition of the Japanese, and belonged to 
the Ainos, who still inhabit the mountains in 
the interior : they are an un warlike, inoffen- 
sive race, called stupid by their conquerors, 
strong, hardy, and short, like their brethren in 
Sagalien, and very dissimilar in colour and 
features to the Japanese or Manchus : some 
geographers term them the Hairy Race, and 
they are well entitled to the appellation ; their 
black flowing locks, descending below their 
shoulders, and their beards, moustaches and 
whiskers would raise the envy of a sappeur 
de la Garde Imperiale. The coasts, valleys, 
and lower hills are occupied by the conquer- 
ing race, who are by degrees finding out the 
mineral wealth of the interior, which is nearly 
equal, I should imagine, to that of the larger 
and main island Nipon, (or Sun-born, whence 
by corruption came Japon and Japan): this 
aggregation of the main part of the population 
on the coasts, banks of rivers and streams, is, 



186 



SINGULAR HEAT OF SUMMER. 



I understand, common to the whole Japanese 
group, as, from the knowledge that fish is the 
principal food of the people, might be inferred. 

The days were very sultry, and the sun's 
rays most powerful, which, with a thermometer 
rarely rising to 80° of Fahrenheit in the shade, 
or to 100° in the sun, was inexpressibly oppres- 
sive to most, even of those who had been some 
years in the tropics. We were surrounded 
by lofty extinct volcanoes; yet they were 
green and fertile nearly to their summits, and 
their upper slopes covered with fine timber. 
The evenings, however, repaid us for the 
sultriness of the days, and were quite cool 
enough for rapid walks amongst the neigh- 
bouring hamlets, or along the shores ; and the 
row to the ship, — twilight's short glimmering 
past, — across the calmed surface of the Bay, 
which reflected the " unutterably bright " stars 
of the " ebon vault " above, with the day- 
breeze hushed, and no sounds audible from 
the distant picturesquely lighted town, was an 
enjoyment which nightly silenced the gossip 
commenced on leaving the beach, and left the 
" sitters " to undisturbed reveries. 



GETTING UNDER WEIGH. 187 



CHAP. VIII. 

Leave Hakodadi. — " Beating " out. — Outsail Consort. — Gale of 
Wind in the Pacific— Shores of Nipon. — Islands off the Bay of 
Yeddo. — Active Volcano. — Appearance of Land near Si- 
moda. — Reach Simoda. — Badly chosen Port. — Difficult of 
Access. — Small. — Loss of Russian Frigate "Diana." — ■ 
Details of Russian Movements. — Russians escape. — Build 
a Vessel. — Distress of the Shipwrecked Officers. — Their 
Accounts of Japan. — American Treaty. — Fruitless Russian 
Treaty. — Sail to the South. — The magnificent Spectacle 
presented by Fitsrijama Mountain. — Japanese Group 
happily situated. — Evidences of its Wealth and Fertility. — 
Van Dieman's Strait. — Its Current. — Clusters of Volcanic 
Islands. — Active Volcano. — Island of Kiusu. — Its Go- 
vernment. — Importance. — Distant View of South-western 
Shores of Japan. — Island of Amakusu. — Christians. — 
Conduct of Dutch. — Nagasaki to Windward. 

At dawn on the 8th September, the ever- 
stirring and hope-exciting sound, " hands up 
anchor," awoke me, and I went on deck to catch 
a last view of the fine harbour ; a strong breeze 
from the S. E. was blowing, the barometer was 
fast falling, and clouds were wildly driven 
along the sky, and the sight of our consort, 
H. M. S. Spartan, getting under weigh 



188 



BEAT AGAINST GALE. 



was one of those things which touch the heart 
of an Englishman, instantaneously revealing 
to him where the national strength lies, as he 
views the effects of order, discipline, and mastery 
of the profession displayed as the frigate, all sail 
set, commenced to " beat out " of the Straits. 
To "beat" was the forte of both frigates, 
(fine specimens of their peculiar construction,) 
and a trial of that forte was before them, as the 
breeze freshened into a gale, driving the huge 
waves of the Pacific Ocean against the swiftly 
flowing current of the Straits : gallantly with 
treble-reefed sails and short tacks in that 
boiling, surging, and un surveyed sea, they 
advanced ten knots an hour through the water, 
and long ere night the Straits were out of 
sight, hid in the haze and clouds of the storm; — 
but our smaller consort was out-sailed by her 
nobler proportioned sister, and was almost hull 
down behind us. 

For the first time in a five months' cruise? 
the fell chill of sea-sickness quite paralysed me' 
and all the good things of my hospitable host 
passed before my eyes like the ghastly half con- 
sciousness of night-mare festivals, and as if such 
condiments could never again raise an appetite. 



SEA-SICKNESS ON BOARD. 189 



That I was not the sole sufferer, and that I did 
not pity the fate of my fellows in misery, I 
viewed as a salve to a vanity akin to that 
which tempts the nodding to deny that they 
are sleepy, and as a confession bringing to mind 
one of the truest of the chilling maxims of the 
cold-hearted Rochefoucault, — cold and ignoble, 
indeed, if Victor Cousin's " Memoires de Ma- 
dame de Longueville " do not belie him. 

The gale lessened the following morning, 
when only the top-masts of the Spartan 
were visible, and slowly died away at night, 
when that frigate had long been lost sight 
of, and the swell of the Pacific alone re- 
mained to remind us of the gale we had expe- 
rienced. The morning of the 10th broke fine 
and clear, and exhibited at ten miles distance 
the sandy shores of Nipon, along which we 
continued to run for three days before a strong 
northerly breeze, — green hills and volcanic for- 
mations ever in view, but no other sail or sign 
of living thing, except the large gulls which 
gracefully dipped down upon their prey or 
rose before the wind with extended un win- 
nowing wings. 

On the 19th we passed Cape King, and 



190 



VOLCANO OF OOSIMA. 



stood towards the island of Oosima, which, and 
the adjacent group of islets, extends from the 
eastern extremity of the Gulf of Yeddo, 
southerly, and have the appearance of having 
in bygone ages formed, as a peninsula, part of 
the continent, and by a great convulsion of 
nature to have had sea passages rent through 
it. Oosima is from 1,200 to 1,500 feet 
high, and was visible through the clear at- 
mosphere for some hours before we were near 
enough to discern smoke slowly issuing in 
creamy vapours from a point below the sum- 
mit, light gray vapours which resembled 
summer clouds, except that the edges had a 
peculiar up-rolling reminiscive of the rise of 
incense in Roman Catholic cathedrals, and that 
they did not momentarily rest on the crests of 
the hill, but descended in continuous motion 
the several ravines ; occasionally the hill-tops 
and slopes were quite clear ; in a few minutes, 
however, the vapours would stream up denser 
and with greater rapidity. I could not detect 
any sign of fire, or any material ejections, 
even with the aid of a very good glass. 

To the southward, the bold outlines of a 
portion of the group rose against the clear 



BAY OF SIMODA. 



191 



sky ; to the north, the lofty mountains east 
and west of the plain in which Yeddo stands 
were seen as large hills at the distance of sixty 
or seventy miles ; to the west, was the penin- 
sula of Idzu, — ridges of hills looking like huge 
green tents set on a gigantic slope, with nu- 
merous conical mountains beyond, the whole 
scene bearing strongly the impress of volcanic 
formation, as if hundreds of very different 
sized openings in the crust of the earth had 
been made in a moment, and the subsidences 
of the ejections consolidated contempora- 
neously, and the country subsequently been 
clothed with forests, but presenting at the 
period of our visit most striking highland views 
around the loch-like bay or bight of Simoda. 

This is very small, narrow, and difficult of 
access, with reefs at no great distance from 
its mouth, and has more the appearance of a 
haunt for pirates, than a commercial port 
opened to the trade of the western world. Its 
proximity to Yeddo may have originally led 
the Americans to accept it as one of the 
harbours rendered accessible by their treaty 
and as a stepping-stone to cross over to the 
Gulf of Yeddo. 



192 



FATE OF THE DIANA. 



It was in this little romantic bay that the 
disastrous adventures of the Russian frigate 
Diana commenced. She had left Cronstadt 
after the declaration of war with Turkey, and 
whilst diplomatic battles were waging between 
the Western Powers and Eussia had escaped 
the pursuit of the English frigates sent on her 
track; had reached her rendezvous at De 
Castries Bay in safety ; had taken the guns and 
men from the half-wrecked Pallas of sixty 
guns, which she required ; had visited Aniwa 
and Hakodadi, and with the Russian Plenipo- 
tentiary, Admiral Puniatin, on board, was at 
length in Simoda to complete the treaty, and 
had received the beautiful presents from the 
Siogoon to the Czar, and had nearly brought 
the secret articles to a satisfactory term, when 
the earthquake occurred in this pretty spot. 
Driven from side to side by the quickly suc- 
ceeding waves of the influences alternating 
with the effluence of the waters from the Bay, 
and which each time brought her rudder and 
false keel on the dry rock, instant destruction 
seemed inevitable ; but as the vessel continued 
to swing clear of the bold islet which still 
further narrows the small harbour, confidence 



SINKS AT SEA. 



193 



was restored, and it would appear from the data 
said to be procured during these moments of 
intensest interest, that coolness and discipline 
were preserved during this trying ordeal. 
Without a rudder, with an injured keel, and 
making water, she survived " the elemental 
strife." A rude rudder being shipped, she 
was taken to sea to round Cape Idzu, and be 
beached in one of the sheltered bays of the 
westward gulf. Before she reached the place 
proposed, the roughly fitted rudder was 
carried away, when in eighty or ninety 
fathoms; an application was then made to 
the Japanese, who sent hundreds of boats to 
tow her into the bay selected : whilst so em- 
ployed, clouds gathering round a mountain 
summit augured bad weather, and, as the 
breeze freshened, the Japanese quickly cut 
themselves adrift, and left the frigate to her 
fate. The men had been removed previously 
to her being taken in tow, as the water had 
gained the lower deck ; and in a few hours 
she sank in sixty or seventy fathom water. 
The Diana and the Pallas had been favourite 
frigates with the Grand Duke Constantine, and 
the latter was the vessel in which the Grand 

o 



194 JAPANESE UNCIVIL TO THE SHIPWRECKED. 

Duke had gained his professional experience, 
in the several grades he has so quickly passed 
through. 

The Japanese authorities were at first very 
kind to the shipwrecked officers and men ; 
gradually, however, their manner changed, 
and instead of loading the former with presents 
as had been the case whilst the frigate floated, 
they now demanded high prices, or the ex- 
change of the nautical instruments of the 
officers for the simplest articles of Japanese 
industry. So exorbitant were they that in 
a short time the Russians had nothing left; 
Food and huts were provided, and a camp 
formed around the habitations of their guests : 
the restrictions became at length so galling 
that Admiral Puniatin was obliged to 
threaten the provincial authorities with an 
attack. However, it was soon obvious to the 
Japanese officials that the sooner their ship- 
wrecked guests were sent to one of their own 
ports the better. 

The U. S. S. Powhattan, bearing the 
ratification of the American treaty, found the 
Russians already housed, and from all accounts 
of our enemies behaved to them with generosity 



KINDNESS OF THE AMERICAN OFFICERS. 195 

and courtesy. The return to China of the 
Po what tan gave the notification of the ship- 
wreck to the English and French consuls 
at Shanghai early in March, and it was directly 
made known to the British commander-in- 
chief. About three months subsequent to the 
shipwreck, it was rumoured that the Powhattan 
carried Russian despatches and a copy of their 
Japanese treaty to Shanghai, and that these 
were forwarded by an eminent American firm 
by the first overland mail. This may be un- 
founded, and a " pendant " to the story that the 
Powhattan met a French whaleship, Le Napo- 
leon, lying in a bay near the Russian frigate, 
and informed the latter of the opportunity 
of making their escape from Japan ; and it is 
believed that there was an attempt made to 
capture her, the Admiral leading the boats 
in their cruise: the whaleship's master had 
a hint given him just in time to get to sea 
before the boats could enter the bay : whether 
this hint was given by the Japanese, or whether 
the American captain, in order to balance 
the information afforded on the other side, 
and thus preserve a new species of neutrality, 
sent the notice, seems doubtful. 

o 2 



196 OFFER MADE BY FRENCH COMMODORE. 

The behaviour of the authorities subse- 
quently on the arrival of the French commodore 
showed a determination to resist any attack 
made on their territory, as they brought 
down numerous guns to the beach to resist 
any force sent against the Russians : the only 
mission sent was that which might have been 
expected from the chivalrous and accomplished 
commodore, — an offer to land the shipwrecked 
Russians at any neutral port, on their giving 
their paroles not to serve until exchanged — 
terms not received by the enemy, who were in 
negotiation with the commander of a splendid 
American clipper for a passage to Petropau- 
lovski ; but the sum demanded by the American 
astounded the Russian Admiral, and though 
reduced step by step to a more moderate 
amount, the vaunts of the clipper's speed 
did not tempt that officer to embark in her, 
as he expected that a war-steamer must be sent 
to watch the port where so large a portion 
—one third — of the Russian naval forces in 
the East was " in check." 

Another month's residence increased the 
desire of escaping, and a small American 
schooner, the " Caroline Foote," was chartered 



ESCAPE OF SOME OF THE RUSSIANS. 197 

to convey the whole of them in three trips 
for a considerable sum, of which a large 
proportion was to be paid on the embarka- 
tion of the first party. Accordingly the cap- 
tain and four or five oflicers and about 150 
men sailed in the schooner early in April 
for Kamtschatka ; on arriving there they 
found it had been deserted by their country- 
men, and sailed for De Castries Bay in the 
Gulf of Tartary; but on the return of the 
schooner to Simoda a second venture was 
probably thought too hazardous by her master, 
and no more Russians were conveyed in her. 

In the meanwhile, Admiral Puniatin had 
commenced the building of a small schooner 
yacht with his own carpenters assisted by 
Japanese mechanics, and with great trouble 
and difficulty completed her; trouble which 
may be estimated by any one who has em- 
ployed foreign workmen to do anything quite 
opposed to their own ideas, and by the state- 
ment of a single material difficulty — it was 
desired that the schooner should be copper 
fastened, and the copper was brought down 
in thick massive pieces which it was necessary 
to hammer out into plates by manual labour! 

o 3 



198 SCHOONER BUILT BY THE RUSSIANS. 

When finished, the Japanese were so de- 
lighted with her appearance, that they insisted 
on three others of similar lines and tonnage, 
— about seventy tons, I believe, — being 
commenced under Russian superintendence, 
and they would not allow any alterations in 
form, though several improvements naturally 
presented themselves after the first vessel had 
been tried under sail. The admiral, a friend, a 
few officers, and a picked crew of about 
twenty-five men, started on the " run of the 
gauntlet 91 in May, and it was ascertained by 
us at Aian, that he had left the mouth of the 
Amur in June, in his ascent of that river, en 
route to Irkutsk and St. Petersburg : the 
Japanese charged sixteen thousand dollars 
for the schooner, unless it was returned, 
when nothing was expected to be paid. 
The whole cost to the Russian government, 
with the subsistence of their officers and men, 
was, we were given to understand, nearly 
eighty thousand dollars. 

On Admiral Puniatin's departure, the two 
lieutenants, seven officers, and 280 men, after- 
wards taken by H. M. S. Barraccouta, re- 
mained, and were subjected to great incon- 



BREMEN BRIG ASSISTS THE ESCAPE. 199 

venience, especially the officers ; tea, rice, and 
fish, with a rare feast of reindeer, being their 
food : meat, coffee, wine, and every other ma- 
terial soother of life's ills, were untasted for 
months, and the roughest costumes from St. 
Francisco were the only articles of dress ob- 
tainable from the American ships. 

Early in July, a small Bremen brig, which 
had been lying in Hakodadi harbour with 
some of the English squadron, and had picked 
up intelligence of its probable movements, 
anchored in Simoda, and an arrangement 
was quickly made with the master to carry 
the rest of the lost Diana's crew to Aaian or 
the northern entrance of the Amur, and they 
almost touched their own territories, when a 
temporary clearing up of the fog delivered 
them into the Barraccouta's power. That this 
steamer 4 was in the sea of Okholtsk was owing 
to her accidental rencontre with the Sibylle 
on the 17th July, and her course being conse- 
quently changed from south to north, other- 
wise she would have been lying in Hakodadi 
harbour with the larger part of the allied 
squadron on the 29th July, the date of the 
capture of the Bremen brig Greta. 

o 4 



200 OBSERVATIONS OF RUSSIAN OFFICERS. 



The Kussian officers saw umch of the do- 
mestic life of the lower orders of the Japanese, 
and were always treated with great hospita- 
lity by these classes ; and if their evening 
walks were so prolonged as to make a bed in 
a distant village desirable, it was always 
offered, with some evening food, and a break- 
fast was served in the morning before they 
started home, and of these classes their reports 
were favourable. Of all the castes of officials, 
on the other hand, they spoke unfavourably. 

The system of mutual distrust and spying, 
of tyrannical oppression of the people and 
servile adulation of superiors, and a religious 
code superstitious or licentious, fortunately 
have not all the debasing effects predicable of 
them : happily, a soil fruitful in all that their 
simple mode of life requires, bays, and rivers 
teeming with fish, and a temperate climate, in 
which corn, rice, fruits, and vegetables ripen 
without very hard labour, renders the existence 
of the lower orders tolerable if not pleasant. 

What differences the intercourse with the 
western nations will cause, it would be bold- 
ness to attempt to foretell : there may be much 
truth in the vaticinations of the Anti-Eu- 



PARTIES IN JAPAN. 



201 



ropean statesmen who surround the present 
imperial wielder of the power of the Siogoon- 
ship, who fear that the strict system of 
police and espionage will break down on the 
admission of foreign residents, and that no 
public force will be left to the government. 
The heir to the Siogoon is supposed to be 
favourable to the western powers, and to wish 
for the speedy introduction of European arts 
and civilisation. To the latter party, the go- 
vernor of Hakodadi and several of the most 
powerful of the feudal princes are presumed 
to belong, whilst the governors of Nagasaki 
have hitherto acted as if they adhered to 
the old national principle of seclusion. 

Great difficulties have been made in the 
carrying out of some of the provisions in the 
American treaty, which are construed diffe- 
rently by the Japanese and United States 
officers : the former endeavour to frame ar- 
ticles in such a manner as " to keep the word 
of promise to the ear and break it to the 
hope," the phrases following each other, so 
that each restricts its predecessor until the 
residue becomes to them " beautifully less." 

Mixing with the people has as yet done 



202 ATTEMPTS OF AMERICANS TO SETTLE. 

more than treaties or conventions, and the 
presence of a few United States ships of war 
in their ports and harbours would do more 
to open the country, than a war of words, in 
the use of which the Japanese method of 
education makes their officers most expert. 

Several citizens of the great Eepublic have 
fruitlessly endeavoured to sell American pro- 
ducts, or to obtain permission to land and fit 
up stores ; and I should not be surprised to 
hear that resentment has sprung up in the 
United States, in consequence of so few of the 
advantages anticipated from the treaty with 
Japan having been realised. 

From what has already transpired, the 
treaty entered into by Russia would appear 
to be the most useful yet made, as it is believed 
to give that power the liberty of sending 
consuls to the ports, who are to be allowed to 
have chapels for the worship of the Deity, ac- 
cording to the Greek ritual, and the Japanese 
are to provide houses for the recreation of the 
Russian sailors, whilst officers and merchants 
are to be permitted to have free intercourse 
with the people ; secret articles are attached 
to the treaty, and supposed to settle the dis- 



MODE OF RUSSIAN DIPLOMACY. 203 

puted boundaries in the island of Sagalien, and 
to promise protection to Japan against the 
attacks of any other western nation. 

For a long time the Russian negotiator was 
trifled with; detained at Nagasaki, where,— 
contrary to the experience gained from our 
failures at Canton, a city, which in China bears 
the same relation to European commerce which 
Nagasaki hold in Japan, — Admiral Puniatin 
commenced his operations; that course was 
not agreeable to the old sailor, but it is told of 
him, that happening to meet Yon Siebold in 
St. Petersburg, immediately prior to his de- 
parture for the East, he had requested the 
advice of this famous voyager in Japan, and 
was warned in reply to be most cautious, con- 
ciliatory, and yielding, and that eventually 
everything required would be gained. Some 
weeks' residence at Nagasaki, where galling re- 
strictions were imposed upon the movements 
of his officers and men, sufficed to open the 
admiral's eyes, and on leaving the harbour 
without any satisfactory preliminaries being 
arranged, he is reported to have exclaimed, 
" I will try my own way next time nearer 
Yeddo." In the summer of 1854, he visited a 



204 PROBABLE LOSS OF RUSSIAN INFLUENCE. 

few of the larger south-east ports, and at last 
brought the negotiations to an end close to the 
gulf of Yeddo, by adopting the totally different 
system, of never relinquishing or modifying a 
proposition or request once formally discussed 
during many weeks of this period, British 
cruisers were lying at anchor in the bay of 
Nagasaki ! 

The presence during the past summer of 
so many large English frigates and steamships, 
and the retreat of the Russian squadron into 
the Amur, will probably reduce the ascendancy 
which the proximity of Russian territories and 
arms, and the astuteness of her diplomacy, had 
obtained. 

We did not drop the anchor in the harbour 
of Simoda; we only "lay to" for an hour off the 
bay without communicating with the shore, 
on which two Europeans were seen hastily 
approaching the point nearest the frigate. 
It was conjectured, and it subsequently ap- 
peared correctly, that they belonged to the 
Greta, of the capture of which they were pro- 
bably ignorant. 

The still fresh breeze from the N. E. was too 
useful to our progress southwards to be lost, 



VOLCANO OF FITSUJAMA. 



205 



and to our regret we saw the pretty scenery 
fade away by degrees, as we sailed before the 
wind. Just as the lofty mountains behind 
Simoda were sinking into long low shores, a 
conical point was seen beyond them, and as we 
scudded to the south, rose higher and higher 
above them, until a most perfect gigantic cone of 
a bluish grey was denned clearly on the bright 
blue sky, overtopping the lofty mountains of Si- 
moda, now dwarfed by our distance from them. 
The chart informed us, that we saw Fitsujama, 
the most magnificent of the numerous grand 
extinct volcanoes of Nipon. It rises on the 
isthmus at the head of the peninsula of Idzu, 
from the water's edge of the two gulfs on either 
side, boldly symmetrical, to an elevation of 
nearly 14,000 feet, and we were looking at it 
from a position seventy miles from it. It was 
the noblest spectacle I have ever seen, and for 
hours the eye rested on its sublime aspect with 
delight, until it alone rose above the horizon, 
and was at length obscured by the evening 
mists gathering on the sea. This scene excited 
an ardent desire to visit at leisure the coasts 
of Nipon and its sister isles, all of which pro- 
bably present most romantic and grand views. 



206 



CALMS IN THE STEAITS. 



The north-east winds carried us down till 
within forty or fifty miles of Yan Diemen's 
Straits, the last two days of the passage 
having been retarded by strong currents to 
the northward : when close to the straits the 
mountains of Kiusu and its smaller sister- 
isle, shut off the north-east wind, which had 
been as constant as a monsoon hitherto almost 
the whole distance from Aian, and the 
navigation of the straits became most tedious, 
as we had no steamer to tow us and in a few 
hours bring us to the open sea, to do which 
six days were spent. At dawn on the 17th, 
one of those striking views, characteristic of 
Japan, presented itself : to the south stretched 
the groups of the Cecille Archipelago, with 
bold outlines attaining altitudes of two or 
three thousand feet ; foremost amongst them 
rose, towering, and abrupt an active volcanic 
islet ; to the North, rising immediately from 
the beach, was the "precipitously steep" 
cone Mount Horner, about four thousand 
feet high; to the N.E. and N.W. the bluff 
Capes of Kiusu, surmounted by lofty 
mountains were visible; and seaward and 
landward the eye rested on the still active pro- 



FINE VIEW AT DAWN. 



207 



cesses of nature's laboratory, as the sun, un- 
dimmed by a cloud or unaccompanied by the 
pomp of golden and purple vapours, heralded 
only by exquisite violet hues shed on the 
zenith and the western sky, appeared a glow- 
ing fiery orb, and revealed the fertility of 
the low lands and the fruits of the patient 
industry which cultivates the hills to their 
summits : everywhere round us were the evi- 
dences of a dense population, and crowds of 
boats long and sharp, with large square sails 
set very far aft, skimmed the waters. 

We were looking at the territories of the 
most enlightened of the feudal princes, who 
surreptitiously encourages trade to his domi- 
nions, and protects himself from the machina- 
tions of the jealous council of Government at 
Yeddo by vigilance, astuteness, and some 
show of his force. It is believed to be the only 
province in which the spies of the Council 
dare not penetrate ; for so quick is the provin- 
cial police that they are discovered and killed 
almost immediately upon their entrance into 
the state ; and the Council cannot investigate 
the murder of their spies, as, though it is the 
custom of the land, it is not legal to employ 



208 



CONDUCT OF THE DUTCH. 



such agents. Rumour avers that the Ameri- 
cans are anxious to get access to one of the 
ports, if not to the capital (fourth or fifth in 
extent in the empire) of this province ; and ex- 
cept perhaps the difficulty of access to sailing 
vessels in the N. E. monsoon, there is no 
portion of Japan which presents more attrac- 
tions for commerce. 

At daylight on the 20th, we saw the long 
hilly island of Amakusa to the eastward, and 
above it the lofty round knoll of Simibara, be- 
low which dwelt the early Christanised popula- 
tion, whose persecution and extermination was 
effected by the aid of Dutch arms and artillery. 
In the east the Dutch governors and rulers 
seem at all times, now as much as formerly, to 
have forgotten that Philip II. and Alva ever 
lived, and have recollected the noblest era of 
their annals, only to imitate the conduct of the 
tyranny their great ancestors so successfully 
opposed. 

As we approached the volcanic peaks of the 
peninsula of Omoora, under one of which lay 
our distant port Nagasaki, a sail was seen, 
and in a moment, the hopes and fears, which 
for three months had with difficulty been re- 



GET NO NEWS. 



209 



strained, were excited by the expectation of 
at length getting some newspapers, — three 
months of war, too ! Ideas of peace were en- 
tertained by a few ; and the most sanguine felt 
assured that Sebastopol and Sweabourg had 
fallen: anxiety for friends mingled with the 
proud anticipations of triumph : signals were 
hoisted and answered, and great was our dis- 
appointment to learn that four steam corvettes 
w T ere in the harbour lately quitted by the sur- 
veying schooner in sight, which, as she had no 
letters for us, went on her surveying path. — 
"We braved all sorts of interpretations of this 
sign of the campaign : that these vessels had 
been long lying in inactivity at such a distance 
from the enemy occurred only to the hesitating 
apprehension of one high mind, ever brooding 
on the best plan of redeeming a lost opportu- 
nity, and keenly sensitive of the shadow of 
ill success. 



p 



210 



CHAP. IX. 

Nagasaki Harbours. — Defences. — Signs of high Cultivation. — 
Cordons of Boats still used against Foreigners. — Uncivil 
Treatment of English Officers by Japanese Authorities. — 
111 Effects of a bad Treaty. — Climate in Summer. — Diffi- 
culties in obtaining Refreshments or Provisions for the 
Ships. — Exercise Ground given. — Attempts to alter the 
undignified Position of a Great Power. — Law made since 
Captain Pellew's Visit in 1808. — Visit to the Governor. — 
Steam Tender employed. — Accompanied by Native Boats. — 
Description of Boats. — Inner Harbour. — Dutch Ships of 
War. — City of Nagasaki. — Dezima. — Interview. — Less 
Politeness than at Hakodadi. — Old Feelings of Contempt 
kept alive. — Talents of Japanese in conducting Conver- 
sations. — Refreshments. — The Endeavours to get the Terms 
of the Convention carried out foiled. — Return from Inter- 
view. — Dutch Commodore visits English Commodore pri- 
vately. — English and French Admirals arrive at Nagasaki. — 
At so late a Season another Expedition sent to the Amur. — 
Its Chances of Success. — Mistakes made during the two 
last Summers. — Prospects for next Campaign. — Russian 
Prisoners request to be landed. — The Conditions. — 
Fruitless Negotiation. — Trade with Japan. — Difficulties 
of Exchange. — Causes. — Probable Consumption of Woollen 
and Cotton Fabrics. — Copper Mines — Less valuable — 
Require the Aid of Science and superior Mechanics. — 
Missionary Field. — Caution. — Medical Missionaries. — Be- 
nefit to be derived from Resident Diplomatic Agents. — 
Regrets at leaving Japan after so short a Glimpse. — Ad- 
vantages possessed by the Japanese. 



The wind lessened as we came nearer to the 
high land to the north-east, and the whole day 



DEFENCES OF THE HARBOUR. 211 

and night were spent in working in through 
narrow channels between islands cultivated to 
their summits, on which batteries en barbette 
are placed, for guns of varying calibre, care- 
fully covered by wooden sheds ; their well- 
dressed slopes and embrasures displaying 
Dutch art and Dutch neatness : in some cases 
revetments of rough masonry are carried up 
from the waters edge ; and in one instance a 
rocky islet has been joined to its neighbour by 
a causeway erected on a stone foundation. 
The positions of the batteries have probably 
been marked out by Dutch officers, and are 
well chosen generally, and would be obstruc- 
tions to the entrance of sailing-vessels, though, 
with their present want of cover for gunners, 
they could not be long occupied if the attack 
was intelligently directed* 

The bay of Nagasaki is a wide though not 
deeply indented basin, studded with islands of 
various sizes from scores of acres in extent to 
single rocks, and their distribution forms the 
external and middle harbours ; the former is ex- 
posed to the west, but the latter is very secure : 

the inner harbour lies in a narrow firth, 
p 2 



212 



DEGRADING RESTRICTIONS. 



extending three miles inland : at its head is the 
small town of Nagasaki. 

Before we reached the middle harbour a Ja- 
panese boat approached, and a communication 
was made, to the effect that it was necessary 
to anchor in the outer harbour until further 
directions were received from the governor ; 
the smaller passages between the islands and 
the mouth of the inner harbour were ob- 
structed by cordons of boats— in the latter case 
chained together; and it was trying to the 
temper to turn from the smiling cheerful faces 
of the hilly shores animated by so many ex- 
pressions of agricultural prosperity to the 
miserable guard-boats on every side of us, and 
to the port regulations which so ignominiously 
restricted us to our ship, or an uninhabited 
islet not large enough for a public school's 
play-ground ; restrictions so degrading to the 
national flag, and which, without violence, an 
able negotiator, arriving with the large 
squadron assembled in this harbour last 
September, by a firm assertion of the respect 
due to the naval forces of his sovereign, 
by amenity of conduct, and by maintenance of 
strict discipline, could have abrogated, and not 



ILL CONDUCTED NEGOTIATIONS. 



213 



lost the prestige attending the first appear- 
ance of a British squadron in Japanese waters. 

It might not be amiss to compare the re- 
sults obtained here with those gained by the 
distinguished British plenipotentiary to Siam 
with a brig and corvette, or with the end 
effected by the manly and generous diplomacy 
of the United States minister ; and although 
few of the brilliant anticipations of the Ame- 
ricans have been realised, still, to be detained 
with a fine squadron six weeks in port, at the 
declaration of war; to receive insulting ex- 
cuses for delays in answering communications 
made to the Japanese government ; to be 
almost prevented for some time from ob- 
taining necessary supplies, and eventually 
to be cajoled into signing a convention the 
terms of which can be turned against the 
object sought to be attained, and which 
preclude amendment, was a species of diplo- 
macy quite novel, and which for the credit 
of the country should never be permitted to 
be repeated. It is now known that during those 
six weeks, Kussian men-of-war were cruising 
near the same shores, and continued to do so 
— unmolested — until the following spring. 

p 3 



214 UNCIVIL TREATMENT. 

After the civil treatment experienced at 
Hakodadi during both our visits, and re- 
membering the facilities offered to the Rus- 
sians and Americans at the ports "opened" 
by the latter power, it was very galling in 
the British port par excellence, " opened " 
by us, to hear the cool assumption of au- 
thorised inhospitality adopted by the officials. 
Every denial was made with a perfect 
readiness to read the convention on the 
lightest murmur, and we were half-starved 
in accordance with the provisions of our own 
treaty. To land on any part of the shore 
save the desert islet; to pull into the inner 
harbour or about the harbours ; to buy any- 
thing, except such food as the officials could 
procure; or even to visit the officers of the 
two Dutch men-of-war in the inner harbour, 
was forbidden. Strong language to be applied 
to a British commander with a strong squa- 
dron under his orders ! ! Why show the 
force at all ? Any future commercial dif- 
ficulties can hardly be settled by sending a 
frigate, where a large force has been exhibited 
without ensuring respect, and it may be neces- 
sary hereafter to strike a blow instead of pur- 



AMUSEMENTS AND EXERCISE. 



215 



suing the more magnanimous policy of only 
exhibiting strength. 

The weather was intensely hot during 
the day ; at night a light land breeze some- 
what reduced the temperature ; in the evening, 
when a stroll along the pretty shores would 
have been so pleasant, the alternatives 
offered were to sit on the lone island, or to 
sail in the harbour ; neither affording exercise, 
though the latter was generally the chosen 
employment, to the trouble and dismay of 
the guard boats which followed, or tried to 
follow, — the poor crews labouring at their 
oars, until exhausted their harsh monotonous 
songs died away in the distance. We heard 
that the eastern and south-eastern parts of 
Nipon and Kiusu enjoy the most temperate 
climate ; sheltered by the mountain ranges in 
the centre of the islands from the cold winds 
which blow in winter from the high lands of 
central Asia, they are open to the south winds 
which are constant in summer, and the pro- 
vinces accordingly having these aspects are 
the richest, the most fruitful, and the most 
populous. 

p 4 



216 



JAPANESE LOGIC. 



Difficulties had arisen before the frigate's 
arrival with respect to provisions for the 
steam ships, and excuses had attended all re- 
quests made by succeeding senior officers t o wait 
upon the Governor, who always " was too ill 
to be seen and the discussion of such points 
with inferior officials usually closed with the 
assertion that the terms of the convention 
entered into with the admiral expressly stated 
that implicit obedience was to be paid to the 
port regulations of Japan, and as the re- 
strictions complained of were imposed by the 
port regulations, that therefore there could be 
no discussion, but only the promised compliance. 
To such logic the only answer to be made was, 
that amicable and hospitable relations are in- 
cluded in the fundamental articles of all such 
treaties, and that to be starved and ill-treated 
by local laws and customs opposed to the 
spirit of the treaty, was at once the greatest 
violation of the amicable relations proposed to 
be formed by it. 

What were the answers given I do not 
know ; for some days all communications on 
the subject were replied to by — We have no 
power," — " We must adhere to the treaty,"— or 



PRECAUTIONS AGAINST SURPRISE. 217 



— " The Governor alone can alter any port re- 
gulation."— The expression of the Commodore's 
desire to pay a visit to his Excellency was for 
some time met by — " A new Governor is daily 
expected and when at length conceded, there 
was a stipulation that if in the meantime before 
the following day, — that appointed for the 
visit, — any more ships of war should arrive, 
that a further postponement must take place, 
as since the daring entrance of Captain (now 
Sir F.) Pellew in 1808, the orders of the 
Imperial Government had been received that 
the guns and forts in the harbour were to be 
manned and ready for defence in case of need, 
on the first appearance of foreign ships off the 
coast. 

No more ships came in, so that early on 
the 24th the officials arrived to say that the 
governor would be ready at nine o'clock to 
receive the desired visit : the hired steam- 
tender had already commenced " to get up 
steam," and the officials were informed of the 
commodore's intention of proceeding in her, 
and invited either to accompany him and order 
their boats to be towed, or to precede him, as the 
steamer would go much faster than the boats. 



218 SURPRISE THE " OFFICIALS." 

Such a proposition seemed to take the Japanese 
by surprise, accustomed as they had been to 
assume the most authoritative control over 
the movements of British officers in their 
waters, and they declared such a thing was 
unheard of and impracticable. No change of 
mind was caused by their objections, only 
ample time was allowed them to communicate 
with the governor and the officers commanding 
the batteries and forts: the authorities in- 
stantly availed themselves of the time given, 
and their boats were rapidly borne along to 
the rude cadence of their standing oarsmen, 
to convey the intelligence to the officials of 
the nine provinces which they declared would 
be affected by the change of plan. 

Accordingly, at a few minutes before nine, 
the Tartar weighed anchor and steered 
towards the town, about three miles distant, 
and long before she reached the line of heavy 
sailing junks moored across the entrance 
to the inner harbour, a broad opening was 
made for her ingress : no delay occurred, 
as would probably have been the case had we 
gone in boats, and as did happen last year at 
the visit of ceremony paid by the veteran 



ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY. 219 

admiral, who was detained for an hour by a 
barrier which a sailors knife might have cut 
in a few seconds, and which submission led the 
astute diplomatists of Japan into the secret of 
the amiable character with which they had to 
deal. 

The entrance to the inner harbour is narrow 
and the hills rise abruptly on each side, 
presenting many good sites for batteries, some 
of which the Japanese have taken advantage 
of: these hills are green with crops or the 
verdure of the woods which the Japanese have 
left here and there on them to supply firewood. 
The prettiest spots in the gullies are occupied 
by temples. As the harbour is entered, the 
further hills are seen to rise less steeply, 
leaving easy slopes for some distances near the 
shores, and on one of these slopes lies the 
town of Nagasaki ; covering a large space 
with its gardens and streets interspersed with 
good timber, dwarfed trees, and shrubs. 

We passed close to two Dutch war-steamers 
anchored off the town : their officers and 
crews, in full dress, were on the decks, 
and their flag was lowered, as the only salute 
allowable in Japanese waters ; a salute punc- 
tiliously and instantly answered, as their 



220 



DEZAIM. 



officers were seen to uncover and the marines 
to present arms. Two Dutch merchant vessels, 
one of about 600, and the other of about 
300 tons, were moored near their men-of-war, 
and looked very light and in shoal water. 

The view of Dezaim conjured up varied 
feelings : a very small, fanshaped island, 
surrounded by stone scarps, crowded with 
Indo-European houses, and separated from the 
suburb by a narrow ditch, — a stagnant dirty- 
looking ditch, hardly too large for an active 
school-boy to leap, — to cross which there 
stood a high-arched bridge. The whole 
thing bore the impress of the base subser- 
viency of self-respect to commercial gain ; and 
it was to achieve such an exclusive position 
that the Dutch arms had been employed against 
their fellow Christians of the Roman Catholic 
faith. Poetical justice could scarcely have 
awarded a more fitting retribution than the 
degrading imprisonment and fast dwindling 
commerce of the Bataviansat Xagasaki, and the 
material symbol of their punishment stands 
almost in sight of the rocky islet in the middle 
harbour, down whose precipitous sides the 
Roman Catholic converts were hurled into the 
sea. 



LAND AT NAGASAKI. 



221 



Now as we steamed in, their balconies were 
full of eager gazers, longing, I believe, for the 
hour when freeer commerce with all the 
Western nations will release them from their 
sad immurement. 

Our steamer dropped her anchor about half 
a mile from the factory and from the 
place which, surrounded by boats, seemed 
to be that intended for our disembarkation : 
the " gigs " were lowered, and forming in pro- 
cession, accompanied by many Japanese skiffs, 
were steered towards a rough flight of steps, 
near which many boats were moored, draped 
with calico to conceal the sitters. The autho- 
rities were waiting on each side of the pier, 
and troops armed with matchlocks and spears 
lined the square beyond it : as the captains of 
the ships reached the head of the steps, the 
high officials met them with good breeding and 
dignity, and requested them to go forward to 
the Governor's palace. Numbers of policemen 
escorted us on either hand, — short, muscular, 
well-limbed, and each with his two swords. 
We ascended three flights of stone steps, the 
houses and streets on each side being 
curtained off; in the guard-houses we saw 



222 PASSAGE TO PALACE. 



officers and men sitting a la Japannaise, their 
lk arms" resting in the racks behind them, all the 
steel being covered up : one officer, mounted on 
a small shabby pony, seemed to be in command 
of the body of troops, about 300 in number, 
and brought up the rear of the procession as 
far as the first flight of steps. 

At the head of the third flight of stone 
stairs a la Maltaise there was a small square, 
upon one side of which the verandah of 
a large single- storied house opened : this small 
square was also lined by troops, and passing 
them on either hand, we ascended the wooden 
steps of the verandah : some apparently 
higher officials met us as we entered, and 
heralded us along dark matted passages into a 
small low chamber, divided from its neigh- 
bouring compartments by high wooden parti- 
tions : at the back of this apartment chairs 
were ranged, on which we were invited to 
sit. 

Nearly half an hour elapsed before a mes- 
senger arrived to say, with the Governor's 
compliments, that he would soon be ready to 
receive his visitors in another room : a feAv 



FIRST RECEPTION. 



223 



minutes subsequently, the commodore and the 
other officers were ushered into another com- 
partment of the building, rather than a room in 
our sense of the word : we saw four high digni- 
taries standing before us, the room containing 
nearly a dozen other officials on their knees: 
to the standers the British officers bowed, 
and the salutation was returned in the same 
way ; an introduction of the British officers 
followed, and the governor put an end to the 
first interview, by stating that he hoped in a 
few minutes, after refreshments had been taken, 
to have some conversation ; upon which we 
were taken back again into the outer room, 
whilst the dignitaries of the city retired 
to another room, to conclude the pipes 
from which they had been separated ; and 
they could be seen seated round a small 
brazier, enjoying themselves, when the screen 
separating the apartments was occasionally 
opened. 

Pipes and tobacco were introduced and 
placed before each guest by the kneeling two- 
sworded attendants, and sweetmeats were sub- 
sequently brought in little lacquered boxes and 



224 



WANT OF POLITENESS. 



set upon light and rough deal tables in front 
of each visitor. 

I believe that all over the East to share the 
pipes and the refreshment offered to your guests 
is the law of politeness, and in our intercourse 
with the high-born Governor of Hakodadi 
nothing could have surpassed the breeding 
with which we were received : immediately on 
our arrival the governor entered the reception 
room, and, after a few compliments, invited 
us to smoke and to take refreshments, sharing 
both himself ; but to see five captains of 
British men-of-war quietly eating, drinking, 
and smoking in an outer room, while the host 
was regaling himself in a separate apartment, 
was a sight to inflame any spirit imbued with 
the sentiment that the proud assertion " Civis 
Romanus sum " was not a title to respect 
comparable with that of the representatives of 
the naval power of England. The chief of 
the first squadron sent to these waters had 
submitted ; a junior could but quietly follow the 
example. I may have been wrong, and may 
still be wrong, but I felt then, and feel now, 
whilst hurriedly copying my rough notes, that 
such yielding is degrading, and as far as na- 



ORJECT OF INTERVIEW. 



225 



tional interests are concerned, a fault as well 
as a crime — a crime of leze Majeste against 
the dignity of Britain. The French Commo- 
dore, when threatened with similar treatment, 
is supposed to have represented that in his 
country host and guest met at the same 
table, and that under no other conditions would 
he accept the dejeuner offered him. 

The objects of the forthcoming interview, I 
presume, were to remonstrate against the 
severity of the restrictions imposed upon 
British ships of war in a port opened to them 
by an amicable convention ; — to show that 
these restrictions were founded on port regu- 
lations at variance with the main purport of 
the convention; — to demand why at the ports 
opened to the Americans, and subsequently to 
us conjointly with them, liberty to land, to buy 
Japanese manufactures, and to walk about the 
country was granted ; and whilst at Hako- 
dadi and Simoda such comparative freedom 
was permitted, at Nagasaki — the port selected 
by the Japanese and British governments as 
the point of amicable contact between the two 
nations — insulting restrictions were placed upon 
the armed vessels of Her Britannic Majesty? 

Q 



226 



APPEARANCE OF THE 



Besides being forbidden to fire their guns, and 
to sound around their vessels, the extreme in- 
terference of the Japanese port regulations ex- 
tended to a denial of the right of intercommu- 
nication between the men-of war. Fish, fruit, 
and vegetables were also required in larger 
quantities. To assist the gaining the ends of 
the conference, seven of Her Majesty's vessels 
were in the harbour, and four other large 
frigates were expected daily. 

The refreshment having been enjoyed, — 
sponge-cakes, sweetmeats, sugar-candy, jelly- 
like condiments, were the components, — we 
were again ushered into the smaller adjoining 
apartment, where, seated on mats on a low 
dais, were four officials, behind whom crouched 
nearly two dozen inferiors : the four chiefs 
did not rise on our entrance ; but the chief 
interpreter begged us to be seated on chairs 
placed facing the dais. On the left of the 
dais was a tall, thin, emaciated man, with eyes 
half dimmed, and his figure constantly shaken 
by a troublesome cough. His life seemed pre- 
maturely worn : he was dressed in the fine 
dark crapes worn by the higher dignitaries, un- 
derneath which shone a yellow silk robe ; silk 
petticoat, trousers of a pale purple, light grey 



AUTHORITIES AT NAGASAKI. 227 



socks, no shoes, and the upper light gauzy 
crape spencer so cut as to form shadowy epau- 
lettes, and invariably donned on full dress 
occasions, were the remainder of his vestments. 
Next him sat an old, strong, healthy man, 
with a good countenance, dressed like the offi- 
cial on his left, colours and crest alone differing. 
Behind these two stood men with reversed 
swords, indicative of their being the relieved 
and the relieving governors. Next came a tall 
thin young man, with a face expressive of 
finesse, and lighted up by keen black eyes, 
also dressed with the happy taste in combining 
colours obviously natural to this nation : and 
last sat a large, heavy, bloated, middle-aged 
man, with coarse features, rather European in 
character ; yet even on his unwieldy person 
w T ere crapes of most delicate quaker tints : 
these two latter personages laid their longer 
swords beside them on the dais. Behind each 
of the four grandees two scribes were seated, 
and several other officials lined two sides of the 
room in their crouching, feet-hiding posture ; 
and lastly, in front of the left or relieved 
governor knelt the two interpreters. 

His Excellency expressed his pleasure in 

Q 2 



228 CONVEKSATION WITH THE 



seeing the Commodore, who replied that he 
was glad that the governor's health had so 
much improved as to permit him to receive a 
visit. A few more compliments passed, not 
quite in the low murmurings nor amidst the 
solemn silence characteristic of our interviews 
at Hakodadi. The Commodore then, with naval 
intrepidity and quiet tact, commenced the 
attack upon the restrictions imposed on the 
squadron. Our interpreter, bred up from 
early boyhood in Hong Kong, and lately em- 
ployed in an English printing-office, though 
speaking his native tongue with fluency, 
rendered the substance of all conversations in 
such patches and shreds, that it was an ex- 
ercise of ingenuity to sew them together so as 
to hold sensibly together, and thus gave great 
advantages to the wily diplomatists before us, 
which, as well as their daily practice in the 
arts of rising in a country where acuteness and 
finesse are thought most highly of, tended to 
make a war of words rather hazardous. " The 
ships are not supplied with such provisions 
as they require," would be met with " There 
is a treaty, made by your admiral, and not to 
be altered ; what does it say ? " " In our 



GOVERNOR CONCERNING THE TREATY. 229 

language the word used is i refreshments ; 
refreshments are water, wood, and vege- 
tables." All that could be said was en- 
countered by " Wait till the Admiral comes," 
" He knows what is meant by the treaty," 
" It never was meant that you should land, 
walk about, buy from the natives, or hold any 
intercourse with them." " The words used are 
precise," " The English treaty must be badly 
translated," " It cannot be altered," " It has 
only been made a few months." An affec- 
tation of our totally misunderstanding the 
object of the treaty, and that we were de- 
cidedly ignorant of the Japanese terms, which, 
indeed, so reduced the limits of concessions as 
to render them valueless, were the defensive 
weapons of their war of masterly inactivity. 

When the interview had already lasted 
some time, and our hosts had passed stealthily 
and logically from defensive to offensive 
phrases, the use of a steamer to come to the 
interview, the exercising of the boats tech- 
nically termed " manning and arming boats," 
and numerous small breaches of the port 
regulations, were successively brought upon 
the tapis, by simply demanding whether such 

Q 3 



230 



FINESSE OF THE JAPANESE. 



and such things were true, as reported to the 
governor. On the admission of the accuracy 
of the reports, requests were made that such 
occurrences should not happen again ; and the 
pursuit was so hotly conducted by these 
astute politicians, that " sauve qui pent" 
seemed to be the desire of all ; and the ideas 
of insisting on landing places, of walking at 
once about the city on the termination of the 
interview, of having bazaars for the sale of 
Japanese products, and of calling on the 
Dutch officers of the steamers, which had 
filled the busy imaginations of the younger 
portion at least of the visitors, flew away 
before the quiet close phalanx of arguments 
employed by the Japanese ; and even a sug- 
gestion that the Captains would like to pur- 
chase some articles of Japanese manufacture 
was politely referred by the relieved governor, 
who was the chief spokesman, to the relieving 
governor, who said "that it should be con- 
sidered." 

The interview lasted till near 4 p.m. with 
an hour's interval at noon, when we were again 
conducted into an outer room and served 
with refreshments ; interpreters and secre- 



REFRESHMENTS OFFERED. 



231 



taries occasionally entering to pay some com- 
pliment, or to see us eating and drinking. 
The mid-day repast consisted of thick ver- 
micelli soup served in beautifully coloured 
lacquer bowls, into which boiling liquors can 
be poured without injuring them ; raw fish in 
different forms, without anything unpleasing 
in its appearance, followed the soup ; then eggs, 
cakes, onions, and sweet potatoes dressed in 
strange guises; and tea very weak and bitter, 
saki and sweet saki, were handed round in ex- 
quisite lacquer bowls or in cups of common ware. 

A little after four, when the desire to put an 
end to the interview had been intimated, the 
governor expressed u his hopes that the officers 
would take refreshments." " Many thanks " 
were returned ; " the officers had already had 
refreshments." " The day is long, the sun 
commencing to go down, . and the refresh- 
ments,are ready," was the hospitable rejoinder. 
Again " many thanks " were returned. " The 
governor hopes the friendship still continues 
on both sides," "On the British part the 
feelings of amity are unaltered," were the 
next question and answer ; and then the 
British officers, rising, prepared to leave the 

Q 4 



232 INCIVILITY OF THE OFFICIALS. 



room. To my astonishment the Japanese still 
kept their seats, and allowed their guests to 
bow themselves out without any change of 
position on their own parts. 

In a few minutes we were once more eating, 
drinking, and smoking in the outer room : 
fish, soup very well cooked, hard-boiled eggs, 
vegetables, fruits, — principally pears of watery 
or hard tasteless sorts, — and an immense 
cranberry-like fruit with the interior resembling 
a medlar in flavour, were served, with second 
editions of raw fish, onions, cakes, saki, and 
tea. Large silver spoons and forks were 
placed near each guest, and likewise coarse 
chopsticks of cedar. Half an hour was con- 
sumed in our second repast; and we then 
returned to the boats, finding the streets, 
steps, squares, and pier lined by troops, as at 
our landing. 

A few seconds took us to the steamer, on 
which the frigate's band was still playing ; and 
in a few more we were steaming out of the 
pretty harbour, followed by numerous boats 
whose crews' cries were happily nearly drowned 
by the band. 

As we approached the Dutch steamer, a boat 



VISIT FROM DUTCH COMMODORE. 233 

was seen to leave her side and be pulled to- 
wards the little tender, whose rapid pace was 
slackened as the gig drew up alongside; and 
the captain of the Dutch man-of-war stepped 
on the deck. He spoke English perfectly, and 
gave us an intimation that the Dutch ne- 
gotiations were drawing to a close, and that 
there was less caution exercised by the 
provincial authorities to cut off intercourse 
between the Dutch and natives, as the former 
now landed and walked about the country, 
easily shaking off the police escorts ordered to 
accompany their parties. He also inquired 
with eagerness about news from Europe, as 
he had been many weeks already in the harbour, 
and asked how the siege of Sevastopol pro- 
gressed. His stay on board was brief; and 
as we passed his vessel the colours were once 
more dipped, her marines presented arms, and 
her officers uncovered their heads. The first 
compliment was returned as quickly as possible, 
— to my apprehension a less noisy, simpler, 
and more flattering compliment than the dis- 
charge of powder from the muzzles of a dozen 
guns, and perhaps more worthy of civilised 
nations than the present custom. 



234 ANOTHER EXPEDITION SENT 

The broiling day was coining to a close as 
we passed the cordon of boats moored across 
the mouth of the inner harbour, and met the 
fresh sea-breeze not yet dying away. 

The French and British admirals arrived 
at Nagasaki in their fine frigates, towards 
the end of September, and were soon followed 
by the Pique and La Sibylle (French). The 
sight of so many noble vessels gathered to- 
gether was grateful to the feelings, despite 
of the continued indignities offered by the 
Japanese, and the failure of so many hopes 
once entertained. It began to be whispered, 
whether truly or falsely, that urgent requests 
to be sent against the enemy's stronghold 
had been made by several of the captains ; 
and at last it was rumoured that an expedition 
to the Amur had been determined on. The 
season for successful operations was nearly 
over; for from the best authorities it ap- 
peared that the 15th of October was often 
the date of the freezing over of the river 
Amur and its lower channels : yet the burning 
desire to achieve some distinction, and to 
effect some injury to the enemy, caused the 
gallant crews selected to forget the long, 



TO THE GULF OF TARTARY. 235 

fruitless cruise they had just performed, and 
to look forward, even at this late period, to 
some active service under the leading of the 
popular, zealous, and energetic Commodore. 

Such a thing was only just possible in the 
middle of October: for the past six months 
it had been not only practicable, but probably 
far easier and less bloody than can ever be 
the case again, as the Kussians are not in the 
habit of throwing away valuable time, and as I 
had ascertained from the Russian officers that 
the long narrow and shallow passage into 
the gulf had been strongly fortified, and that 
troops from the place d'armes at the mouth 
of the river could be brought down to aid 
in their defence. Still it is within the range 
of possibility that the Russian commander, 
trusting to the accounts sent from Japan 
of the probable plans of the English Admiral, 
may have ordered the fine corvette Oli- 
vutska to the south to spy out the pro- 
ceedings of the allied squadrons ; in which 
case I am sure she has been ere now added 
to our navy. All that skill, daring, and 
judgment can effect will be done; and though, 
at this late season, the return of all our own 



236 



THE IMPORTANCE OF TEE 



vessels will be a sufficient voucher of the 
talents of their commander, I yet trust to hear 
that the passage into the rich and valuable 
Eussian possessions in North-eastern Asia 
has been discovered, and that some firm data 
have been afforded for the future prosecution 
of a war in the further East, on which much 
more may depend than at first blush appears. 
The conquest of the Mantchu Tartars by 
Kussia would be the most difficult step in 
gaining possession of Northern China; and 
how easily that step can be taken is dimly 
discernible through the broken and uncer- 
tain accounts we have of her rapid conquest 
of the tribes on the river Amur. 

I had already trespassed for six months 
on the hospitality of my accomplished 
friend ; and on the eve of entering on ground 
so fertile in interest, I was under the 
necessity of proceeding homewards. That a 
reconnaissance of this territory has not been 
made, with the view of laying before the 
Government the very valuable information 
which must result from its examination 
by an officer of ordinary intelligence, is a fault 
attributable to some responsible authority. 



RUSSIAN CONQUESTS IN THE EAST. 237 



Last autumn it might have been done without 
other risk, it now seems, than that of cap- 
turing two frigates at Castries Bay: this spring 
it was probably a more difficult operation ; 
but not having been attempted, its difficulty 
cannot be calculated: next spring even a 
reconnaissance of the Amur gulf may be im- 
practicable. The importance of the position is 
proved by the orders sent last spring from 
St. Petersburg to concentrate all the naval 
forces in the Amur ; and a successful attack 
upon it at the commencement of the war 
would have shaken Russian influence with 
the Tartars, who are now almost ready for the 
yoke. It was most tantalising to be forced 
to forego a last chance of seeing Russian 
batteries levelled by the rapid firing of well- 
exercised crews ; though six years' absence 
from England increased the tempting pros- 
pect of a return homewards, 9 

Before the little squadron started for the north, 
the Russian prisoners made strong appeals to the 
Admiral to be sent back on their parole not to 
serve until regularly exchanged. They had 
high hopes of success ; and anticipating a very 
short stay as possible by the squadron sent 



238 



RUSSIAN EEISOXEES EXPECT 



with them, on account of the early set ting -in 
of the ice, they with the light hearts of part- 
ing guests continued to express their sense of 
the hospitality and friendship evinced by their 
captors. One commander generously placed 
his cabin and his table for nearly two months 
at the disposition of two Russian lieutenants, 
and the other officers lived with the allied 
officers of the same ranks in the greatest fra~ 
temite ; and it was quite pleasing to hear 
their expressions " smoothing the rough 
front of war," especially the tones and terms 
employed when they spoke of the generous 
commander who had taken the Greta. Sub- 
sequently these hopes were dashed after long 
deliberation, and unfortunately after the pro- 
position of stipulations felt by the Russian 
officers to be incompatible with their honour ; 
as they seemed to consider the terms proposed 
as equivalent to requesting them to lead 
the British squadron into the position occu- 
pied by their ships, — terms which no British 
officer, I am sure, could insult his prisoners 
by proposing ; for no veil of casuistry could 
hide the dishonour of such a proposal, nor 
cover the disgraceful cowardice which could so 



TO BE EELEASED ON PAROLE. 239 

outrage the feelings of the captive officers. 
However, no words of mine could arrest 
the indignant floods of eloquence poured 
out against what the prisoners said had been 
proposed, though I must add that they con- 
tinued to acknowledge the courtesy with 
which they had hitherto been treated by 
the Commodore and his officers ; and sad as is 
the fate of all prisoners, to be deprived of pay 
and rank, and to be treated as civilly dead, 
are additional misfortunes awaiting a Russian 
officer when captured. 

As yet no British trading-ship has visited 
the ports of Japan. Two or three small Ame- 
rican vessels, a Hamburg barque, and a Bremen 
brig, have attempted to open commerce either 
by barter or by the aid of western coins. No 
surreptitious trade can succeed by the use of the 
latter media, owing to the difficulties attendant 
on passing the precious metals in coin to the 
government or the Dutch and Chinese factories 
at Nagasaki : perhaps the government would 
receive gold and silver or even copper, as the 
mines would appear to be less valuable 
than formerly, and as the government has hit 
upon the illusory and unfortunate expedient 



240 



PROSPECTS OP TRADE. 



of debasing the currency to hide the de- 
creasing productiveness of the mines. Indeed, 
its monetary proceedings with the squadron 
proved that it no longer wished the Dutch 
to receive the metallic payments made by the 
ships, although it still employed the Dutch 
factory to negotiate the bills which were given 
for the provisions sent on board by the instru- 
mentalitv of the officials. 

With respect to purer commercial transac- 
tions it is very difficult to argue. With so large 
a population, estimated variously at from fifty to 
one hundred millions, the mere commencement 
of an exchange of products would be a valu- 
able opening. As yet we are ignorant how far 
the taste for western products can be generated : 
to judge, however, by the upper classes, the 
desire of being dressed in Chinese silks and 
crapes is apparent, and would seem to justify 
the prediction that so many millions, inhabiting 
a variable climate, would gladly be clothed in 
our lighter cotton fabrics in summer, and in 
our warm woollens in winter, instead of 
wearing coarse cotton garments, fold upon fold, 
in cold weather, and roaming nearly nude in 
the sultry months. 



OPENINGS FOR ENTERPRISE. 241 

How long it may be before the Japanese 
become customers of ourselves or the Ameri- 
cans depends, I think, greatly on the judgment 
and talents employed in putting the commer- 
cial interests of the countries into relation ; and 
I have no doubt that a clever and experienced 
minister, acquainted with commercial matters, 
would soon discover the best channels for en- 
terprise. The race between us and the Ameri^ 
cans for this market is as yet doubtful, as the 
struggle has been hitherto committed, on both 
sides, to hands unused to the guidance of such 
competition. A great field for the talents 
of one or both branches of the Anglo-saxon 
race will be still easier opened, if I am rightly 
informed as to the state of the valuable 
copper mines of Japan, of which the working 
is gradually ceasing, owing to the want 
of engines to keep them clear of water. Once 
admitted as workmen in the mines, and 
surrounded by a swarming population, who 
can predict the issue ? The first engine from 
Glasgow would be the avant courier of a 
gentle and gradual revolution in Japan, and 
the commercial industry of the West would 
export our products and introduce a higher 

R 



242 MISSIONAKY PROSPECTS. 



civilisation, and eventually, I trust, a purer 
religion. 

The upper classes are already seeking 
the possession of watches, clocks, mechanical, 
nautical, and therm ometrical instruments, 
telescopes, and glasses of all descriptions ; and 
a few resident Europeans would encourage 
these and similar tastes. 

Of the prospect of successful missions 
there is even greater difficulty in forming an 
opinion. Of one thing, however, there can be 
little doubt, — that great caution and judgment 
should attend the deliberation of the question, 
" where missionaries should be sent ; " and any 
underhand attempt to distribute tracts 
through the agency of inferior diplomatic 
officers should be resisted by all who wish 
for the permanent christianisation of this de- 
moralised land. An open, honest, and manly 
method of proceeding is the only one likely 
to have more than temporary success with a 
people brought up to the use of deceit, adula- 
tion, and cunning. 

A demand for the celebration of divine 
service in the houses of our consuls should be 
firmly made ; and chaplains who are medically 



RESIDENT POLITICAL AGENTS. 243 

educated would acquire great influence, — as we 
have learnt in the neighbouring empire of 
China, — amongst a people whose remedies are 
simple, and who are almost ignorant of 
chirurgy. 

On all such points a cursory visit will only 
admit of cautious suggestions being offered 
by the visitor. I have, however, a strong 
persuasion that many beneficial efforts would 
follow a commercial treaty, drawn up by a 
talented plenipotentiary, and that the tem- 
porary residence of such an officer would, at 
all events, tend to unveil the resources of 
Japan, and to afford information on the most 
favourable openings for commercial trans- 
actions, and to unravel the ties with which 
Russia is slowly and surely binding both the 
Japanese and Tartars. 

It was with great regret that I left these 
shores, so interesting and so little known, and 
of which enough had been revealed to me 
to ascertain the wealth, fertility, and populous- 
ncss of a partially civilised nation, possessing 
in all classes, except the highest, those strong 
and hardy elements of character which lead 
to hopes of regeneration ; and in common with 
R 2 



244 INTERESTING RECOLLECTIONS. 

nearly all travellers who have visited Japan, 
I carry away with me no slight affection for 
an amiable race, suffering from degrading 
tyranny and debasing superstitions, — hardy 
seafaring islanders, — whose natural advan- 
tages of extensive sea coasts, mines, rich soil, 
fine climate, and well situated position, would, 
under a tolerably enlightened government, 
render a flourishing commercial people. 



DEPARTURE FROM NAGASAKI. 245 



CHAP. X. 

Leave Nagasaki in Steamer under Sail. — Gale of Wind. — 
Fruitless Attempt to put back under Steam. — Run before 
the Gale. — Approach the Yang-tse-kiang. — Shanghai. — As- 
pect the Year before when held by the Rebels. — State of 
the Rebellion. — The Christianity professed by " the Breth- 
ren." — New Testament Distribution. — Leave Shanghai. — 
Hong Kong. — Increase. — Coasts of Cochin China. — Sin- 
gapore. — Chinese Monopolies. — Industrial Trades. — Cul- 
tivated Interior of Island. — ■ Pulo Penang. — Its Beauty. — 
Partially destroyed. — Waterfall. — Fort. — Ceylon. ■ — 
Richness of Cocoa-nut Trees. — Chinese Emigration pro- 
posed. — Old Fort. — Promenade. — Lady Overboard. — 
Endeavours to find her fruitless. — Aden. — Its Strength. — 
Its Aridity. — Shores of Red Sea. — Suez. — Desert Roads. 
— Cairo. — Its peculiar Character. — Gardens. — Railroad. — 
Alexandria. — M. de Lesseps' Scheme of a Canal from 
Peluse to Suez. — Advantages to Egypt. — Effect upon our 
Eastern Possessions. — English Policy. — Strength of the 
Defences of Alexandria. — Malta. — French and English 
Soldiers in the Cafes. — Improvements in the Works. — 
Maltese Architecture. — Gibraltar. — Its Strength discussed. 
— Tarifa. — Cintra. — Reach Southampton. 

At dawn of the 30th September, availing 
myself of the proffered hospitality of the 
Commander of H. M. steam sloop Styx, I 
was sailing out of the middle harbour of 
Nagasaki before a strong north-easterly 

it 3 



246 



GALE OF WIND. 



breeze, which so freshened before we lost 
sight of the romantic coast of Kiusu, 
that it was thought prudent to attempt to 
return under steam to the harbour : the at- 
tempt to steam against a rising gale was 
unsuccessful ; the fires were therefore put out? 
and we ran before the wind in splendid style. 
As we left the mountains and the straits of 
Corea behind us, the gale moderated, and the 
sight ever pleasing to a thorough landsman 
of all the studding sails set, greeted my eyes 
almost until the afternoon of the 2nd Octo- 
ber, when the discoloured water and distant 
islands announced our approach to the Queen 
of Chinese rivers. We failed to catch a glimpse 
of the rocky natural pyramid named after the 
industrious missionary Gutzlaif, and anchored 
in the broad shoreless stream at night, hoping 
that the following morning's dawn would 
reveal the rock. 

The day broke with clouds and mist, and it 
was necessary to run down a little to " sight " 
the islet ; after accomplishing which our course 
against the rapid yellow -brown stream was 
unaccompanied by any difficulties. The sight 
of the cotton crops still on the ground, and 



SHANGHAI. 



247 



the rich vegetation on each bank, announced 
our entrance into the fertile valley of the 
Yang-tse-kiang. In a few hours the church 
steeples of Shanghai and many ships' masts 
were visible over the low intervening banks of 
the Woosung tributary ; and the signs of com- 
mercial activity and agricultural prosperity were 
delightfully exhibited in the striking prospect 
before us. When last seen twelve months before, 
on the small river, now so full of western 
shipping and of Chinese junks, not a sail was- 
stirring, save one European vessel in the 
service of the Chinese Government, which 
with well-padded sides was delivering an inef- 
fectual fire against the high walls of the 
distant city ; and the constant booming of 
cannon was then audible, where now the hum 
of the ceaseless bustle of active business 
alone rose from the shore. 

New houses were springing up in the 
settlement, in which great improvements 
had been lately effected, and its wide and 
well laid out streets were thronged by Chinese 
labourers, carrying heavy weights on bamboo 
poles to the cadence of their unmusical song, 
" Ath-ho," " Ath-ho," plainly recognisable from 

R 4 



248 CHANGE IN APPEARANCE 



the deck of the vessel when anchored within a 
hundred yards of the bank, or "bund," 
as, with the adoption of Anglo-Indian terms 
so common in China, it is usually called. It 
is on this fine promenade that the merchants 
" delight to congregate," to solace themselves 
with the news of the day, or the more piquant 
tale or "canard " of the hour — the two latter 
when most amusing or least veritable being 
euphonised into the classic term of " bunder." 

Any comfortable house full of newspapers 
would have been grateful after so long a cruise 
in chilly and remote seas ; but it was again 
my good fortune to be the guest of one of the 
magnates of oriental commerce, — of one of 
that class whose generous hospitality is pro- 
verbial, but yet equalled by their less known, 
because delicately administered, though open- 
handed charity. The elegant Italian mansion of 
my host, so expressive of the civilisation of 
the West, wore a graceful aspect to eyes fresh 
from the wild regions of the far East. 

Last year I had passed through the deserted 
streets of the Chinese city of Shanghai, and 
seen the deadly fruits of its long occupation 
by the band of pirates and vagabonds who 



OF THE CHINESE CITY. 



249 



had taken it from the panic-struck officers of 
the Empire — walls deeply indented by cannon 
shot, roofless buildings, rifled dwelling houses, 
temples turned into manufactories of powder 
and guard rooms, and withal, an air of deso- 
lation so dominant that the stranger's steps 
resounded as if he were pacing a city disin- 
terred from the accumulated rubbish of cen- 
turies ; and occasionally the sight of a half- 
famished pallid Chinaman with long dishevelled 
hair shrinking out of view, or piteously whining 
for charity, were a few of the details of the 
rueful spectacle presented by this once flou- 
rishing city. Since its recapture by the aid 
of our gallant allies, it has slowly recovered 
a portion of its former prosperity ; and in my 
walk through the city and its suburbs, I saw 
that new buildings, or the rebuilding of old 
structures, were progressing favourably and 
fast hiding the unseemly scars of the injuries 
inflicted by the treacherous bands from the 
south. 

The accounts of the increase of trade in the 
port of Shanghai fully justify the anticipations 
of those who foretold its ultimate supre- 
macy over the other ports in China — a supre- 



250 



PROGRESS OF THE 



macy already attained — and the proud boast 
that this settlement may yet vie with the City 
of Palaces in commercial greatness, may in 
twenty years be verified, if the sound, honest, 
and remunerative sy stem of trade, lately in- 
troduced, be continued without interruption 
from the intestine wars of the Chinese. 

Of the state of the contending parties in 
China it is very difficult to obtain satisfactory in- 
formation ; but that the success of the Chinese 
Christians in the northern provinces has not 
equalled the fond vaticinations of their zealous 
friends seems almost certain, and their ulti- 
mate preponderance even, to the north of the 
Hango, would appear doubtful ; for without 
any intervention of the race of Tartar tribes — 
stipendiaries rather than subjects of the Mant- 
choo dynasty — sufficient force exists to pre- 
serve a large portion of the empire. Whether 
disasters will not supervene, from discord 
amongst the leaders of the Christians, and 
whether the universal wish for the peaceful ex- 
ercise of agricultural and commercial pursuits 
will not cause a great reaction amongst the 
mass of the people, are questions which the 
issue of a winter campaign in the north and the 



KEBELLION IN CHINA. 



251 



approach of a new agricultural year may settle 
in a few months. That any form of Christianity, 
however impure and however debased by 
the admixture of momentary political addi- 
tions, should become the religious faith of so 
large a portion of the human family, has irre- 
sistible attractions for all wellwishers to 
their species ; as all generous minds, while 
gratefully alive to the purity of their faith, 
would gladly assist in its dissemination 
amongst other nations; still the cause of truth 
can never be served by highly over-coloured 
representations of the merits of the Chinese 
converts, to whom praise has been so indis- 
criminately given. Indeed, the sensible 
and prudent wellwishers and aiders of this 
movement might do inestimable good by de- 
voting their energies to the distribution of 
the New Testament in the Chinese and Tartar 
languages, and by endeavouring to decry the 
poetical and mystical rhapsodies so current 
amongst " the brethren," and which it is sad 
to see are highly rated by Europeans whose 
talents and piety are justly venerated. 

With our vast commerce with China, we 
yet are comparatively ignorant of the exten- 



252 INTERIOR LITTLE KNOWN. 



sive provinces in the interior of the Empire, 
and I believe that more is known of the inter- 
nal condition of China at Kome and St. Pe- 
tersburg than to our authorities at Shanghai 
or Canton : not on account of any negligence 
on the part of our diplomatic agents, but from 
the extended ramifications of the Roman Ca- 
tholic missions in all parts of China and Tar- 
tary, from which for many years much accu- 
mulated information on all points of interest 
has been obtained, and from the advantages pos- 
sessed by Russia, both in being permitted to 
maintain a college at Pekin, and also in her 
having conterminous frontiers of vast extent : 
on these borders trading transactions licitly or 
illicitly occur, to knit closer the political web 
with which Russia is silently ensnaring the 
Tartars and Chinese. 

Early on the 8th of October I quitted 
Shanghai, and, with favourable wind, tide, and 
current, floated fast down on the yellow 
muddy river, and " Night with her hundred 
eyes " glancing so brightly and purely through 
the clear atmosphere, gleamed on our rapid 
passage through the romantic and rocky islets 
which stud the coast. With tolerable speed the 



HONG KONG. 



253 



fresh north-easterly monsoon wafted our old 
steamer within sight of Hong Kong by the 
morning of the 12th. 

The bold outlines of this small island 
did not wear their most flattering aspect, 
but looked burnt, bleak, and arid, and 
were reflected on the smooth glowing surface 
of the windless harbour, on which the rays of 
the tropical morning sun glared fiercely. A 
three years 7 residence had slowly accustomed 
the eye to find beauty in the barrenness before 
me, but a short absence, however, sufficed to 
bring back the first impressions of its burning 
aridity. Here, also, improvements and increase 
of wealth and population were evident ; and 
it is to be hoped that the large aims and un- 
wearied assiduity of the distinguished and 
accomplished governor will continue to have 
the good results anticipated by his enlightened 
patriotism. 

On the afternoon of the 15th I bade adieu 
to our Chinese colony ; and as the crowd of 
those who had come on board to say good bye 
to the homeward-bound, departed, it was im- 
possible to look on so many fine scions of 
the old stock without recognising the advan- 
tages England derives from the energies she 



254 



AEIDITY OF SHORES 



thus employs in all quarters of the globe, or 
to fail to foresee the liberalising influence the 
return home of such sons must have on the 
elder race, with its less pliant prejudices. 

Of the many advantages commerce and 
colonies produce, the reaction of so many 
minds, — struggling with difficulties on every 
shore, — on the parent state, is not the least 
useful to the national progress in civilisation 
and self-government. 

The overland route is so well known, and, 
thanks to the general ability displayed in the 
management of the Peninsular and Oriental 
Steam-boat Company, the progress home- 
wards by the fine vessels employed is so regular, 
that little novelty would attend its description. 
To those who return in good health every 
thing wears a pleasing aspect, and it is most 
cheering to see invalids, who had been carried 
on board, gaining strength and day by day in- 
vigorated by sea air, even whilst in the tropics. 
Release from business or duty is an additional 
zest to the gratification of all, for as yet few 
idle travellers wend their way so far eastwards. 

The mountains of Cochin China near which 
we coasted are arid and quite denuded of timber ; 
the abodes of man for so many ages, it would 



OF COCHIN "CHINA. 



255 



seem that they would soon cease to be habitable, 
and the wish to restore their original virgin fer- 
tility rises strong as the eye rests on these burn- 
ing surfaces. Very different from the scenery 
I had lately quitted in the regions where ice- 
fields and fogs are unconquerable by July suns ! 
Yet on gazing at the latter scene there was 
always a feeling that the eventual introduction 
of colonists would clear its vast forests, and 
that at no distant period towns, hamlets, and 
corn-fields would be seen where the bear now 
reigns supreme ; and that territories larger 
than the original states of the great Western 
Union, and lying nearly under the same 
latitude, must one day be the seat of a high 
civilisation. Whilst near the tropics, man 
seems so prodigally to have exhausted the 
riches at his command, that in a few centuries 
realms are dried to deserts." 
The coasts of southern China, of Cochin 
China, of Arabia, of Egypt, of Tripolis, of 
Morocco — all present the same aspect of a 
worn-out vegetation ; and I believe that the 
coasts of Syria, Asia Minor, and Greece are 
not very dissimilar in character. Man is 
tempted by the luxuriant and prolific vege- 



256 



SINGAPORE. 



tation of the tropics and warmer portions of 
the temperate regions to enjoy life without 
tasking his energies : in the colder climates 
labour is required to support life, and to 
wrestle with nature for subsistence would 
appear to lend such vigour to the labouring 
stock, that from such a race alone can it be 
hoped a people can rise, which shall not sink 
under the weight of its own powers of pro- 
duction. 

In six days the island-studded straits of 
Singapore were entered, and its island-port, 
crowded with shipping, wore the appearance 
of prosperity which subsequently received 
information proved to be no deceitful look. 
The view is pretty ; low, rich, and green land, 
with fine houses fronting the sea, and groups 
of cocoa-nuts and other tropical trees, hem in 
the settlement on every side ; slight undu- 
lations at a small distance from the coast are 
crowded by villa-like residences around which 
young plantations of nutmeg and clove-trees 
are to be seen in most regular order. Malay 
boats, of every variety of construction between 
their own and the English type, plied between 
the shore and the steamer, which the shallow- 



CHINESE IMMIGRANTS. 



257 



ness of water near the town compelled to lie 
off nearly a mile distant to deliver its mails, 
prior to getting into the snug and picturesque 
little port appropriated to the service of the 
steam-ship company, about three miles west- 
ward of the town. This establishment is 
young, but promises to afford the facilities 
which a depot at such a distance should be 
capable of offering. The buildings and wharves 
are substantial and well built, and are good 
evidence of the creditable manner in which 
this useful and flourishing company is served 
at remote stations. 

A drive across a morass along good roads 
and through the suburbs gave me an insight 
into the different races living in the settlements. 

The industrious trades are in the hands of 
the Chinese, of whom a very large proportion 
of the population consists : they are found 
most useful settlers, and great numbers are 
constantly arriving, as the richer Chinese are 
permitted to acquire large portions of the 
interior of the island, and to plant colonies of 
their countrymen on them, which are brought 
often from the interior of the south-west part 
of China. 

s 



258 



OTHER INHABITANTS. 



These men have complete possession of the 
remoter districts of the island, — cut down the 
forest, plant, sow, and reap according to the 
fancies of their employers, and in many cases 
have had no intercourse with Europeans. 
Indeed, a story was current that the governor 
of the Straits Settlements, whilst making the 
tour of the island, was received on the northern 
coast with great incivility and rudeness by 
villagers totally ignorant of European customs, 
and perhaps kept in the dark, as to the rule 
of England, by those who hire them for a 
term of years. 

Malays, Mohammedans from India, and the 
natives of the neighbouring islands, are also 
encountered in the Straits ; the first in great 
numbers : small and wiry in figure they move 
with an air of easy and independent non- 
chalance, which contrasts with the business- 
like step of the Chinese and the prouder 
tread of the turbanned Indians. No Chinese 
women, and but few Indiennes, are to be met ; 
the Malay fair are in greater abundance, yet, 
from their early and fruitful marriages, look 
mostly of only two ages— childhood and 
matron hood. 



NUTMEG TREES. 



259 



I was just being consigned to the irritations 
of a large and uncleanly hotel, with beds 
worse than those of the smallest posada of 
Old Castile — and I know of no "lower deep" 
— when I fortunately met an old naval friend, 
who was the guest of a merchant, from whom, 
upon my friend's introduction, I received a 
hospitable invitation to spend my respite 
from the steamer at his country house. I 
was delightfully surprised on my route there 
to find the roads and bridges of this young 
colony in so good a condition, and to see that 
the employment of convicts, from India, was so 
usefully directed. Many much older colonies 
might suffer in the comparison of the propor- 
tional means in the hands of the directors of 
public works and the effects produced. Large 
shade-giving trees bordered the level road; and 
small demesnes, with the merchants' villas rest- 
ing on their slopes, were on either hand ; clus- 
ters of cocoa-nuts, beetel nuts, or patches of 
wild jungle occasionally intervened. The nut- 
meg tree requires great care for fifteen years 
before it commences to yield the large profit it? 
crop furnishes. Kept ten or twelve yards 
apart, dug round and manured each year t the 

s 2 



260 CLOVE TREE. 

constant labour of the neighbouring islanders 
is put into requisition to nurture them. It is 
a bushy, leafy, bright-leaved tree, and is pretty 
singly when near, or in masses at a great dis- 
tance, where the regularity of the plantation is 
lost ; in full bearing, with hundreds of pear-like 
depending nutmegs, just opened by ripeness 
and displaying the rich scarlet colour of the 
network (allspice) which surrounds the nut, 
gleaming amidst the bright green and glossy 
leaves, it is very beautiful. The clove-tree is 
somewhat similar though far less pretty, has 
less abundance of foliage, and looks sickly 
with its brittle branches. The beetel-nut is 
also a graceful tree with its necklace of nuts 
beneath the overhanging leafage, and grows 
in great beauty in this climate. Immediately 
beyond the plantations — one step, — and the 
jungle in all its luxuriance of tree, shrub, and 
interlacing creeper, is around you. A few 
giants of the jungle are left amidst the new 
plantations, but will not long outlive their 
cut-down brethren. They attain heights of 
120 and 150 feet, and are branchless for two- 
thirds of their height : they have little spread 
of branch, and throw hardly any shade, and 
the timber is, I understood, perfectly useless. 



PULO PENANG. 



261 



Forty hours' steaming brought us in sight 
of Pulo Penang, or Nutmeg Island, as its 
Malay name signifies, or Prince of Wales's 
Island, as it is officially termed. This small 
colony has a high sanitary reputation for 
invalids from India and China, and is by 
many of the grateful convalescents admired 
as the u Fior cPOriente" and no terms of enthu- 
siastic praise are esteemed too high to use in 
speaking of it. When I first saw it, the high 
hills which rise in the centre of the Island were 
clothed with richest tropical vegetation, and 
the plantations of nutmeg-trees and sugar- 
canes were dotted on the park-like belt which 
lies between the steep hills and the sea. 
Now, however, the great clearings effected 
by the Chinese immigrants on the slopes 
of the hills had left red bleak scars, and 
much of this luxuriant appearance has been 
lost. Useful as the Chinese are as settlers 
in colonies where hard work is required, 
as the busy pliers of the handicrafts, and 
as clever promoters of small commercial 
speculations, their ruthless system of clearing 
forest-land under tropical suns tends to give 
a barren air to their locations ; and much as 

s 3 



262 



VIEWS IN THE 



they at first gain by the washing of the 
soil from the exposed hill-sides into the 
vales and bottoms, this method must soon 
terminate in rendering even their fertile 
rich cotton or sugar lands less fruitful. 

We landed, and during our progress 
through the streets of this small and not very 
fourishing town, the superiority of the Chi- 
nese shops, and the conquest of the industrial 
trades by that race, were very apparent. The 
increasing improvement also in the archi- 
tecture of the shops seemed, strange to say, 
to be the effect of Chinese example, who 
copy, in stone or brick, the wooden verandahs 
and pillars of Chinese cities. The two 
objects of especial interest to hurried tra- 
vellers, the view from the Hill top and the 
waterfall far below it, were not both to be 
compassed during our detention of a few 
hours, and the heat of the noonday sun 
decided the choice made by most of a drive 
to the waterfall. 

The level and shaded road laid through 
properties of nutmegs, cloves, and sugar-canes. 
The former tree grows most luxuriantly in 



INTERIOR OF THE ISLAND. 



263 



this fertile and comparatively old colony, and 
one plantation of it is said to yield as much as 
ten thousand a year. The waterfall is first 
seen glancing through the thick forest, as yet 
undisturbed by Chinese industry. The fall is 
pretty, and, sitting in the deep shade and lis- 
tening to the different tones uttered by its 
plunging, quickly rushing water, is most agree- 
able in the noontide of the tropics. The stream 
issues over four steps about 200 feet high 
in the rocky hill-side : the upper three are low 
and broad, and the water drips down in veiling 
wavy threads, whilst the lowest step is nearly 
100 feet high, and the river is rolled into a 
narrow column as it leaps down it, after 
which it breaks its way through low rocks 
to the rich plain forty or fifty feet below. 

Shade and murmuring waters, the two 
greatest luxuries in the East, would tempt 
to build, one would imagine ; but- no house, 
vice-regal or commercial, is to be seen within 
sound of the fall. 

The natives here, as at Singapore, dwell in 
wretched huts covered by leaves of the cocoa- 
nut, which tree flourishes in this soil. 

An old fort at the projecting point of the 

s 4 



264 



ARRIVAL AT CEYLON. 



harbour was scarcely worth a visit, — the 
old Stereotyped bastioned fort, of such small 
proportions as to render that trace ridiculous, 
which we scatter broadcast over the globe, or 
which, when found by us, is retained, its older 
purpose of defence against the natives having 
long been served 5 whilst the few embrasures 
are so badly protected that no gunners could 
serve their pieces even against the fire of a 
frigate. 

The noble vessel resumed her progress 
westwards after seven or eight hours' de- 
tention, and in five days the lofty mountains 
of Ceylon were visible on the north-western 
horizon. Slowly the lower land appeared 
without our detecting the fragrance our 
imaginations led us to anticipate as ever 
breathing from this queen of the Cinnamon 
Islands. A little after sunset the light glittered 
over the sea, and we were forced to remain all 
the long tropical night outside the port it 
beaconed. At dawn we steamed inwards; 
and I was struck by the dense, gloomy forests 
of c oeoa-nut trees lining the shores, except 011 
the point where the picturesque old Dutch or 
Portuguese fort rose a buttress against the 



ASPECT OF GALLE. 



265 



angry swell of the Indian Ocean. Looking at 
these masses of cocoa-nuts, one would hardly 
imagine the immediate proximity of an ancient 
settlement ; and a glance at the harbour on 
which rode another of the finely modelled 
steamers of the Peninsular and Oriental 
Company, and three or four collier ships, did 
not speak favourably for the commercial 
improvement of a port at which steam- 
ships have " coaled " for so many years. 

The long swell of the lately disturbed 
ocean rolled in as unrestrained as if the 
native princes still swayed the destinies 
of Ceylon, whilst the surging waves broke on 
the rocks on both sides of the narrow and short 
channel, teaching an engineering lesson with 
playful mockery. 

If I am not misinformed, similar symptoms 
of tardiness in developing resources is patent 
in other portions of this rich and valuable 
colony, and would lead to the conclusion that, 
as it has passed from that stage of progress in 
which unlimited power can be confided to an 
able governor, it should be quickly led into 
that nobler phase in which the popular ener- 
gies are more broadly represented; and the 



266 



IMMIGRATION OF CHINESE. 



growing difficulty in the government of 
Ceylon would also seem to point to the 
obvious advantages of a larger legislative 
assembly. In the successful assertion of the 
claims of party there is more chance of 
benefit to a colony than in gratifying the 
ambition of the few individuals who form the 
council ; and the tone of the local press and 
of public opinion would be improved by the 
more thorough discussion of colonial interests 
by a large number of representatives, if many 
years' experience in different colonies teaches 
me aright. 

I presume that there are obstacles to the in- 
troduction of large numbers of Chinese im- 
migrants ; a class of labourers found so useful 
in the islands of Singapore, Penang, Java, and 
Manilla, — all resembling Ceylon in climate, 
and in the nature of their productions : but if 
these obstacles are not of the gravest kind, I 
cannot but think that such an immigration 
would not only in a few years bring a large 
portion of the unoccupied lands into cultiva- 
tion, but also greatly increase the commerce 
-and tonnage of the ports of Ceylon, and 



LABOURERS RECOMMENDED. 267 



develop and improve the industrial and handi- 
craft trades. A Chinaman, even if living in a 
climate prodigally rich in the means of exist- 
ence, still retains the strong greed of gain ; 
a character quite distinct from that of most 
eastern nations, and very different from 
the listless effeminacy of the Cingalese 
living on the production of their own cocoa- 
nut trees. 

A walk through the regular and narrow 
streets of the little town, walled in by the old 
fort, gave us glimpses of the descendants of 
mixed Portuguese, Dutch, and Cingalee 
races, who seemed to live contentedly a quiet, 
unbustling existence, seated in verandahs or 
open doorways, and smoking as if without 
occupation. The old fort sustains its character 
of picturesqueness inside ; its green slopes 
relieve the eye, suffering from the glare of the 
sun's rays; and its ramparts afford a good 
promenade after the heat of the day is past. 
Indeed, to those who delight in the gorgeous 
colouring of Oriental climes, there are few 
spots whence a finer view is obtained of the 
magnificence and splendour with which the 
setting sun invesis the clouds, and of the clear 



268 



THE OLD FORT. 



pure atmosphere it leaves so lingeringly ; 
a view I daily enjoyed for five weeks some 
years ago, and I think superior to the peculiar 
transparency of the tint of cloudless Egyptian 
sunsets, and to the rich and varied hues I 
have seen from the.strand of Macao, — the con- 
templation of which lent a charm to the quiet 
and sad life of Camoens. 

Of the utility of the fort in its present 
state much cannot be said : it certainly keeps 
the sea-breeze out, — a friendly visitant who 
should, if possible, be admitted to the homes of 
the Europeans, whose pale cheeks and nerveless 
motions speak of the slow and steady effects 
of a residence in a climate generally thought 
favourably of. 

Just before it became dark, we threaded 
the narrow, short, and intricate passage to sea, 
and with almost the certainty of a chrono- 
metrical arrangement, we were borne along 
ten or eleven knots an hour for two days. 
Hot tropical weather made the early morning 
stroll on deck most agreeable, and we were 
commencing our walk before sunrise, whe?i a 
Lascar, sent up to the maintop to repair some- 
thing, hailed that " a man was overboard." 



CRY OF "MAN OVERBOARD.'' 



269 



The officer of the watch ran forward to order 
" stop the engines," and directed that a boat 
should he lowered. All eyes were turned 
towards a distant white spot behind us, as 
the long screw-vessel was brought slowly 
round. The boats were all unfortunately 
covered up with canvas tightly laced round 
them, from which it took many minutes to 
disencumber the boat ordered to be lowered, 
by which time all trace of the speck lately seen 
on the slightly rippled sea was lost. The 
bearing of it had been taken, however, and 
towards it the first boat, and, as the screw- 
vessel got round, a second boat, was sent. 
From the deck, nothing moving was visible ; 
and all hopes of saving the unlucky Lascar 
believed to have fallen overboard faded. At 
this moment a gentleman came hurriedly on 
deck, and rapidly muttered, " I cannot find 
my wife." The captain of the vessel was imme- 
diately informed of the sad catastrophe appre- 
hended, and the steamer continued to retrace 
her path, whilst both boats on different lines 
sought to discover any floating substance. The 
vessel repassed near the spot where the white 
object was seen, and as the last chance of savin o- 



270 



A LADY 



even the body of the drowned person went b} 7 , 
the tidings that a lady was the only one 
missing in the roll of passengers and crew 
became known to all. It was an unhappy 
tale. Suffering from mental and bodily de- 
rangement consequent on a severe shock 
which an accident had occasioned to the 
nervous system, with a tall and well propor- 
tioned figure, and a fine though pallid face, 
the sympathy of every one had been enlisted 
as she passed leaning on her husband's arm, 
with a weakness and languor strangely con- 
trasting with her fine form. The agony she 
endured was often intense, and life loomed 
before her, in less excited moments, " a long- 
disease. " An only child, one temptation- 
to take most nauseous remedies, the hope 
of soon seeing her parents was ever found 
successful. Still, for the few days preceding, 
greater melancholy was apparent in her air. 
There seemed to be no possible means open 
to her to injure herself, when these terrible 
pains of the head afflicted her. On this morn- 
ing expressions of despair had escaped from her, 
but she was apparently soothed, and persuaded 
to sleep, — and left in her cabin. A narrow 
oblong port lighted it, out of which a child 



LOST AT SEA. 



271 



would have great difficulty in squeezing itself, 
A fruitless search elsewhere led at last to an 
examination of the cabin, and the partially 
dragged-through bed-linen of the berth proved 
that the strong desire to put a term to 
sufferings, apparently irremediable, had given 
persistence to the unfortunate lady's struggles 
to get out of the ship. I had happened to 
have met her three years before, a blooming 
handsome young woman, full of gaiety and 
life, and had, therefore, often strove on this 
voyage, — unsuccesfully enough, — to beguile 
some of the long hours of her day. 

The vessel was in about forty minutes 
brought round again, and continued her 
westerly course. No blame attaches to the 
officers or crew ; for the delav in lowering a 
boat did not much affect the sad end of this 
accident, as the alarm was not given in time 
to be of much avail. Still there may arise 
occasions, especially when it is recollected how 
few European seamen are employed in steam- 
vessels to the eastward of the Red Sea, where 
many lives may be sacrificed owing to the 
delay consequent on ridding boats of their 
canvas covers ; and one boat at least should 



272 



ADEN. 



be kept quite free for immediate lowering ; and 
as it need not be the same boat every day, 
much "wear and tear" would not occur. 

After a week's uninteresting sail across an 
ocean on which few vessels are met, the barren 
and hilly shores of Arabia appeared in sight, 
and in a few hours more we saw the sultry 
looking peninsula of Aden before us. Its 
aspect from the sea is most forbidding, and 
the main portion looks inaccessible and strong 
by nature. On the lower and weaker point of 
land the ground is occupied by batteries ; and 
immediately that the inner or back harbour is 
entered, a profusion of scarp-walls, scarped 
rocks, and lofty forts, announce that much art 
has been employed in rendering Aden im- 
pregnable. 

Against Arab warfare, indeed, it almost seems 
that too expensive precautions have been taken, 
whilst the shallowness of the inner harbour, 
and the want of good water if aggressive ope- 
rations were undertaken on land, would render 
an attack by any great western power nearly 
hopeless. Great credit is due to the ability 
with which so much has been done in a few 
years ; for the improvements of the settle- 



IMPROVEMENTS. 



273 



ment in the last three years were very striking. 
" 1 found it of mud, I left it of stone," — if a 
great man's words may be parodied,— might 
be said by the officer who has ruled it 
lately ; still, if experiments with all the hardy 
tropical plants, requiring little water, have not 
been made, the present hideous barrenness 
of the rocks immediately surrounding the can- 
tonment is a blot on the fair fame of the officers 
employed, as a more reverberating furnace 
for heat it is difficult to conceive. A want 
of soil and a dearth of water are great ob- 
stacles ; yet the old Knights of Malta con- 
trived to remedy these evils in some measure, 
and modern sciences, botanical, agricultural 
and hydraulic, offer far more numerous ex- 
pedients. Where there is so much to praise 
as at Aden, it is tempting to try to criticise, 
and to offer suggestions, probably already 
received from other persons; still, when all 
is said, it stands a fine outwork of British 
power in the East, and is no unfit monu- 
ment of the genius of the arme savante of the 
noble army of India. 

As soon as the coals were put on board, 
the steamer was again under weigh, and as 

T 



274 



COASTS OF AKABIA. 



Aden slowly sank below the horizon, we 
thought that we had seen the last of our 
ideal of desolation and barrenness. The 
streets of Bakel Moadel, however, were quite 
as arid in appearance, and for five days we 
continued to sail between shores the most in- 
hospitable and repulsive. The lofty moun- 
tains of the interior were alone pleasing 
to the view from the magically soft tints 
they wore during the intense heat of the day ; 
— a heat quite oppressive at the lower end of 
the Eed Sea, — even in November, — though we 
were on the verge of the tropics. Proceeding 
further to the north, a cool breeze from the 
desert blew almost constantly ; until nearer 
Suez, the temperature was very chilly. 

There were few signs of the increase of 
trade which might have been expected at 
the head of the gulf, and the town presented 
the same look of decay which it bore when I 
last saw it. The camels and the desert vans 
imparted some life to it, indeed ; but those 
who could, were glad to get away as speedily 
as possible, after visiting the house in which 
Napoleon lived, and gazing on the dreary 
prospect its windows were directed to. 



VIEW OF CAIRO. 



275 



The desert road has been much improved, 
and the passage was achieved with less dis- 
comfort than was formerly the case ; and as the 
Viceroy has commenced the formation of the 
railroad from Cairo to Suez, under the direc- 
tion of his own officers, — who certainly could 
not have an easier coup d'essai — the transit 
across the desert will in a few months be 
accomplished in three or four hours instead 
of sixteen or eighteen. 

The view of Cairo from any point is always 
most striking. There is an impress of triumph- 
ant Mahommedanism thrown over this city, 
difficult to describe or to account for. The 
numerous minarets rising in graceful forms, 
and standing out so clearly defined in this 
pure climate, have an air of youth which 
contrasts with our preconceived notions of 
the gradual wearing out of this faith, as the 
elements of western civilisation mingle more 
freely with its restrictive tendencies. These 
minarets arrest the gaze on whichever side it- 
is directed, and the freshness of the tracery 
on the stone courts the closest inspection ; 
but the peculiar beauty of Cairo is seen in 
the narrowest and oldest streets ; for its 

T 2 



276 



BEAUTY OF ITS STKEETS. 



mosques and palaces yield the palm of grace- 
fulness to the light and slender columns and 
exquisite arabesques of the Alhambra, and to 
La Giralda. The views of its streets are, 
however, superior to any remains of moresque 
architecture still visible in the more ancient 
parts of Granada or of Seville : and though 
many of the superior classes now don the 
close frock, and shuffle along in the tight 
boots, of the Franks still the mass of the 
population, dressed in the varied colours and 
flowing robes of the East, give an animation in 
unison with the projecting buttress, over- 
hanging balcony, latticed window, and fretted 
stone work of the scene ; — a gaiety of appear- 
ance which, at a distance, almost lends the 
life and light given by woman to our western 
streets, whilst the graceless inflated black 
bundles of silk which shroud the eastern 
sisterhood more than supply the sombre hues 
of European male attire. 

The gardens of Cairo and the more re- 
nowned plaisaunce of Shoubra have been, 
I think, much improved since my frequent 
visits to them, in a former sojourn of many 
weeks. The grand and useful avenues of trees 



RAILWAY THROUGH EGYPT. 277 



on the great roads leading out of Cairo still 
flourish, though no signs of the care bestowed 
on them were visible. The " material " im- 
provements of Mahomet Ali have already out- 
lived the forced civilisation he so assiduously 
strove to rear ; for each new ruler of Egypt 
seems to despise continuing any good work 
commenced by a predecessor, as much as 
living in a palace raised by another ; and this 
country, if not ruled for many years by the 
same viceroy, promises to show as many 
abandoned enterprises as palaces. 

The railway is, however, an exception, and 
notwithstanding the present ruler's schemes 
of commercial progress by the aid of the canal 
through the isthmus, it does not seem to 
have suffered more than was to have been 
apprehended from the Egyptian government's 
share in its formation, being the procuring of 
the requisite labour ; a delay has in conse- 
quence arisen, with some loss, also, it is to be 
presumed, to the European officers employed. 
The buildings and railroad at the Cairo 
terminus speak well for the judgment and 
skill which has presided over the execution of 
this useful work ; and it was pleasant to ob- 

T 3 



278 



STEAM DOWN THE NILE. 



serve the simplicity which marked the designs 
of the buildings — a quality rare elsewhere, and 
most commendable in these regions. 

Although the most interesting news com- 
municated to us at Suez had been that we 
should be the first passengers by railroad 
from Cairo to Alexandria, we found that 
something was still wanting ; and the non- 
arrival of carriages from England, or doubts 
of a bridge, were given as the cause by flying 
or lying rumour. Perhaps it was wished that 
the Pasha's sister, daily expected from Con- 
stantinople, should have the doubtful honour; 
for whose reception the greatest preparations 
had been made, in the shape of innumerable 
stars and crescents of wood, ready to receive 
little lamps, having been affixed to the facades 
of the palaces and government offices. A 
detention of two days permitted a renewal of 
acquaintanceship with the chief objects of in- 
terest near Cairo: to the Pyramids and " the 
wondrous Sphynx," I had formerly paid long 
and solitary visits, with the recollections of 
which a hasty gallop " there and back 11 would 
have somewhat jarred. 

It was necessary to steam down the yellow 
brown Nile for rather more than half the dis- 



THE BARRAGE, 



279 



tance to Alexandria, and glorious as one 
imagines it, in coming to the East, to spend 
days and nights on " the bosom of old Nile," 
and pleasant as were the memories connected 
with a long summer's night's ascent of a " high 
Nile," on my charming outward voyage, it was 
difficult to refrain from joining the universal 
chorus of dissatisfaction at the slowness of our 
progress, though ten miles an hour would have 
been considered rapid a few years ago. Low 
alluvial banks, date trees, camels, buffaloes, 
and mosques lose their attractions when every 
one is thinking of getting home as quickly as 
possible ; and the histories of the Pharaohs, 
Ptolemies, and Caliphs are but dimly recalled 
and hastily repulsed amidst the anticipations 
of domestic pleasures. 

The Barrage, however, was too manifest an 
obstruction in our homeward path not to 
arrest attention, and every conceivable end 
Avas assigned in a few minutes to that pic- 
turesque edifice, spanning so gracefully the 
rapid river: the gates are not yet fixed to 
this great work, so rich in prospective benefits 
to the Delta, and many experienced eyes augur 
unfavourably of the strength of this pretty 



280 PICTURESQUE OBJECT. 

object to resist the weight of such a mass of 
water A passing glance whilst the vessel 
slowly drifted through one of the side canals 
would lead to the impression that it was 
strongly built, in which case the calculations 
of the designer, which it is to be presumed 
the Government has caused to be examined, 
should prove correct. Doubts of its stability 
were expressed by most of those with whom 
I conversed, who, perhaps, knew as little of 
the plans as I did ; yet, where so much good is 
anticipated, regrets arise that anything should 
have been left uncertain in the prosecution 
of the work. Of its taste, the grounds of 
condemnation seem surer : to erect a pretty, 
elaborately turretted gothic bridge across a 
broad river, flowing through an immense 
plain, with no mountains, hills, rocks, or 
gothic inspiring groves of venerable age 
within sight, would appear to be against the 
principles of art, and contrary to the example 
of all who have in the olden time ruled over 
Egyptian architecture, the chief charms of 
which — grandeur and simplicity — might have 
been given to the Barrage of the Nile. A 
glance at the map of lower Egypt shows the 



THE ADVANTAGES ANTICIPATED. 281 

immense advantages of any good plan of ir- 
rigating this extensive plain ; but whether the 
construction of the necessary works on terra 
Jirma, and the subsequent requisite changes 
in the course of the stream, would not have 
been a more effectual method than the erection 
of this expensive and perhaps useless dam in 
the bed of the river, is still a problem to be 
investigated, and great authorities are, I be- 
lieve, to be cited in support of each design. 

A rapid descent down the " falling Nile " 
brought us before sunset to the railroad sta- 
tion, and it was again pleasant to observe the 
judgment evinced in the execution of the road 
and the buildings on it. The carriages of first 
and second classes also were lofty, roomy, and 
comfortable ; and at a pace varying from twenty 
to twenty-five miles an hour we were taken, 
with three pauses at different stations, to Alex- 
andria in about three hours,— a distance of 
upwards of seventy miles, I believe. 

It was night when we arrived, and the 
150 passengers just landed from the different 
Mediterranean steampackets had taken pos- 
session of all the beds in the four large hotels. 
At first we were threatened with a bivouac 



282 



ALEXANDRIA. 



in the large square, in which, this chilly No- 
vember evening, upon trunks, sat delicate 
women and children, journeying home from 
the sultry plains of India, in search of health 
and strength : gradually, however, the ladies 
and children were lodged in the rooms of 
landladies or of chambermaids, and the gentle- 
men were planted in rows along the tables of 
saloons, or thickly strewn in small rooms on 
mattresses placed on impromptu bedsteads. 

Alexandria bears the aspect of an European 
town, in which Orientals traffic ; and from the 
more numerous ships in the harbour, it would 
appear that it is more flourishing than during 
the late reign ; but a feeling of the insecurity 
of its prosperity would seem to be prevalent, 
and hardly to be accounted for, unless the 
proposed completion of the railroad to Suez, 
and the fear of the carrying out of M. Lesseps' 
scheme for a direct canal through the isthmus, 
may partially contribute to this sentiment. 

This latter question is much agitated ; for 
M. Lesseps has published a small volume con- 
taining his reports to the Egyptian Govern- 
ment, with the professional opinions and 
calculations on which they are founded ; and a 



SCHExWE OF M. LESSEPS. 



283 



large staff of persons, professionally employed, 
had just arrived, to carry on the preliminary 
surveys. 

Of the feasibility of the undertaking there 
can be little doubt ; but whether M. Lesseps' 
scheme, involving acquisitions of land to be 
cultivated by the company which forms and 
maintains the canal, and probably leading to 
difficulties with future Egyptian Government, 
though based on accorded privileges, rather 
tempting to speculators, and perhaps as 
tempting to any future Government to an- 
nul, is one in which capitalists will readily 
enter, is very doubtful : a company for the 
formation and maintenance of the canal and 
its tributaries, and deriving revenues from the 
tolls and the water taken for irrigation, would, 
I imagine, with even less anticipated rates of 
interest to shareholders, have a more certain, 
if not more lucrative, business. England is 
always spoken of as averse to any such canal, 
and M. Lesseps rather insinuates that she still 
throws difficulties in the way of its successful 
prosecution ; yet, though a railroad from 
Alexandria to Suez would, for many reasons, 
seem to be more popular in England, either 



284 



ITS ADVANTAGES. 



of these means of rapid communication with 
India gives a high political importance to the 
possession of Egypt, and from Toulon or 
Algiers, France, at the outbreak of a war 
with us, would strive to acquire the keys of 
either route. Still, were the canal practicable 
for large ships, a momentary naval supremacy 
in the Mediterranean would allow France to 
seize Egypt and to threaten our Indian pos- 
sessions ; whilst, if the canal was made only 
large enough for small vessels, the commercial 
cities of the Mediterranean would, perhaps, 
share a trade with us from which they are at 
present nearly excluded. This question will 
become a source of difficulty, if the Viceroy 
continues to have the affection for the scheme 
of M. Lesseps that he is represented to enter- 
tain; and as the railway to Suez can hardly 
have much influence on the prosperity of 
Egypt, it is worth considering what aid England 
can lend in advancing the really useful plans 
for the irrigation of Lower Egypt, to which it 
would not, probably, be impossible to draw the 
Pasha's attention — from all accounts, already 
turned towards more unrestricted commerce, 
which here can have no surer basis than the 



IRRIGATION OF EGYPT. 



285 



agricultural wealth obtainable by restoring 
the ancient fertility of the soil of the Valley of 
the Nile. 

It is rumoured, indeed, that the present 
ruler of Egypt does not feel much interest in 
the Barrage and other plans for the irrigation 
of the Delta ; still diplomacy can scarcely have 
a more honourable task than that of winning 
a sovereign's favour from schemes which will 
inevitably lead so weak a power into depen- 
dence, if not vassalage, to measures which 
immediately promote the prosperity of his 
country, and the wealth of his treasury. The 
recollection of the luxuriant crops anciently 
borne by the now dry and sandy plains causes 
painful emotions to the passer through Egypt, 
who contemplates the magic wrought by 
water wherever it is introduced, and sees the 
swiftly flowing river running unused to the 
sea, with its rich alluvial freight. To a re- 
sident, or to those born in the country, the 
constant rolling by of the golden brown tide 
may sound less mournfully, but to me it ever 
" the melancholy burden bore " which the 
unenjoyecl gifts of Heaven cause. 

Much has been done to enable Alexandria 



286 



DEFENCES OF ALEXANDRIA. 



to resist an attack if its batteries were properly 
armed, and if the Egyptians can defend works 
as well as the Turks have done at Silistria and 
Ears ; but I suspect, from a rapid glance, that 
heavy guns and — probably good gunners — are 
not numerous, and that even the maintenance 
of the large extent of scarps, and of the 
numerous cleverly placed outworks, is not 
sufficiently thought of. Should the ship 
canal through the isthmus be undertaken, the 
strength of Alexandria and of the Mediterra- 
nean mouth of the canal will become questions 
of great political importance. Impregnability 
from the sea might be as disadvantageous to 
us as openness to the first assault. 

The steamer was declared to be ready 
for passengers on the afternoon of the 21st; 
and a little before sunset it steamed away 
from the low sandy shores of Egypt, the 
fresh northerly breeze intimating unmistake- 
ably that we were leaving the East behind us, 
and causing a quickness of pace in walking 
the decks rather foreign to Anglo-Indian 
habits. An accident arising from the break- 
ing of the crank, owing to a flaw in the 
metal, detained us twelve hours, " lying to " 



MALTA. 



287 



against a strong breeze. Thanks to the ability 
and industry of the engineers and crew, 
a new crank was inserted, and we were enabled 
to proceed onwards. 

On the afternoon of the 25th Malta was 
visible, and the steamer soon afterwards 
reached her anchorage in the quarantine 
harbour. French troops of all arms, landed 
from the transports en route to France, 
amicably enjoying themselves in the cafes with 
the men belonging to the depots of the several 
English regiments in the Crimea, was a novel 
and agreeable sight to those of us who re- 
membered Malta in the days of peace. The 
youthful appearance of our officers and men 
was as astonishing and less pleasing ; for 
few seemed to have arrived at the fit cam- 
paigning age, at which the constitution, being 
at its best, can afford the temporary losses 
which hard work and insufficient food may 
cause ; and this reason, with many as obvious, 
may account for the system adopted by the 
wise Emperor of the French, of sending new 
battalions to the East, instead of drafting 
recruits, who have neither arrived at manhood 
nor acquired that discipline and regard for 



288 



JUVENILE RECRUITS. 



the good name of a corp.. ..nich the service 
of a few years creates, into the decimated regi- 
ments ; and it should be recollected, ere it is 
too late, that no rumours of the reluctancy of 
men in following their officers have been 
heard until this plan of reinforcement by 
recruits of a few weeks was adopted. 

Unhappily, it is an unpopular and misun- 
derstood proceeding in our service to speak of 
evils, not of the first magnitude, at the 
moment, and even the irremediable losses 
of men and treasure, which have been 
occasioned by the system of waiting for 
the lessons of sad self-experience, will not 
make us docile to reasoning founded on 
former wars. Who amongst us would have 
the courage of incurring the hatred which 
a criticism of the evidence before the two 
military commissions of 1837 and 1854, illus- 
trated by the late campaigns, would arouse ; 
or which an exposure of the bland arrogance 
with which suggestions founded on cotempo- 
raneous occurrences abroad were met, would 
inspire ? 

It was gratifying to observe that the 
teachings of the war had not been lost on the 



REE OEM OF OUR DEFENCES. 



289 



able and enligr 3d governor of Malta, 
as evidenced by several works in progress, an 
exposure of which at the present moment, 
before the eyes of our quicksighted allies, 
argues the manly confidence which repairs 
whilst acknowledging weakness ; and as I 
believe that we shall have to reform our 
defensive works all over the globe, peculiar 
advantages and responsibilities point to the 
governor of Malta, — a place long considered 
as the chef oVoeuvre of our engineering talent,— 
as the proper leader in the conversion of our 
fortresses d la Louis Quatorze into the prouder 
ramparts which defy the approaches of 
" wooden walls." 

The crowded state of hotels and lodging- 
houses, and the numbers thronging the pic- 
turesque streets of Valetta, seemed to testify 
that this island capital is no sufferer by 
the war, which hurries so many regiments 
past it, and new buildings, almost worthy of 
their vicinity to the noble auberges of the days 
of the knights, were rising in many places. 

One circumstance strongly impresses the 
traveller from the East, viz., the want of shade 
on the facades of even the grandest specimens 

u 



290 



ARCHITECTURE. 



of Maltese architecture : it would seem that 
the knights had come from cold climates, and 
had introduced the large windows and unre- 
lieved fronts to admit as much light and heat 
as possible : the courts indeed, in the interior 
of the larger houses, and the narrowness 
of the streets, possibly prevent much inconve- 
nience being felt ; but the glare from long 
exposed facades must be intolerable in the 
lengthened summer days. The exterior of 
the palace of the grand master, now used as 
the Government House, for example, seems as 
if copied from a design for the latitude of 
St. Petersburg. 

The coaling of the steamer was completed 
in about twelve hours, and we then resumed 
our voyage westwards. After a favourable pas- 
sage of four days and a few hours, we saw the 
light on Europa Point, and were shortly again 
at anchor. We were enabled to get ashore for 
two or three hours the following morning, to 
ramble over the Rock, whose summit was 
shrouded in the heavy dark mists with which 
a Levanter invariably enwraps it. I had 
passed three summers happily at Gibraltar, 
and was curious to observe the alterations 
which, during an absence of three years, had 



GIBRALTAR. 



291 



* been made, as I was formerly sceptical of the 
reputation of great strength which it enjoys. 
I sought with additional anxiety for the new 
works which were to cover deficiencies or 
weaknesses, acknowledged even by those who 
thought most highly of its defences. Every 
Englishman is so proud of our possession of 
Gibraltar, a pride increased by serving in its 
garrison even in time of peace, that to question 
its impregnability is almost an insult : yet I 
believe that in two, if not three, essentials of 
defence it is still deficient *, and that however 
concealed from, or unknown to, Englishmen, 
the Spanish and French bureaux of war 
have a perfect knowledge of these weaknesses. 
As long as we are so super-eminently mistress 
of the sea that on all points, and at the same 
time, we can trust to naval superiority, the 
defensive power of Gibraltar may be limited 
to security against an attack from a fleet in 
temporary command of the Straits. Is it 
quite secure against the artillery of a large 
fleet ? The repulse of an attack may be 
trusted to the heroic courage of the British 
soldier, but as a question of artillery behind 
stone walls, against artillery covered by 

u 2 



292 STRENGTH OF ITS WORKS. 

wooden walls, has military science placed 
Gibraltar in the position of superiority against 
naval batteries enjoyed by Cronstadt or 
Sebastopol ? Why not ? Who have resisted the 
introduction of new arrangements of batteries ? 
Similar queries might be put endlessly, and 
can be as flippantly answered as heretofore ; 
for in the day of disaster, England magnani- 
mously forgets to punish the parliamentary 
mystifier, or the professional obstructive, who 
have repelled innovation, and cleverly quieted 
its promoters. 

I had hoped to point out to my fellow 
voyagers from the East the advantages derived 
here from planting rugged and bleak hill sides 
with hardy shrubs, requiring little moisture ; 
but, to my regret, I found that little, if anything, 
had been done. The wild fig, which grows 
luxuriantly along the shores, would not only, 
I imagine, have a beneficial sanatory effect 
upon the atmosphere of the Rock, but from 
its indestructibility by fire, and from the 
huge thorns it presents to the too hasty ap- 
proach er 5 would increase the difficulty of 
scaling the hill sides. The idea of planting the 
abrupt and arid slopes is an old one, and there 
may be objections to it which I am ignorant of. 



TAPJFA — C INTRA — SOUTHAMPTON. 293 



A little before noon on the 1st December, we 
steamed out of the Bay, and, running before the 
freshening Levanter, overhauled the numerous 
ships scudding through the Straits, passingclose 
to the romantic wall-girted Tarifa, and within 
sight of the low shores of Trafalgar. At day- 
light the following morning the bold cliffs of 
Cape St. Vincent were lighted up by the rays 
of the rising sun, and before it set we had 
seen the white palaces and forts of Lisbon, and 
the picturesque castle which crowns the hills 
of Cintra, — hills which, towards the sea, pre- 
sent a black and rocky aspect, strangely at va- 
riance with the ideas of luxuriant fertility the 
name conjures up. 

(e Lo ! Cintra's glorious Eden intervenes, 
In variegated maze of mount and glen." 

A distant view of the light on Cape 
Finisterre, a delay of a couple of hours to 
repair a small steam pipe which had burst, 
a rapid passage across the Bay of Biscay, com- 
paratively smooth and tranquil, and on the 
fifth morning the low chalky hills of England 
were in our sight ; and glad I was to land that 
evening at Southampton, after an absence of 
nearly six years. 

u 3 



APPENDICES. 



APPENDIX I. 

On the Repulse at Petropaulski. — Its Causes, unknown to the 
Public, mystified. — Losses caused by this System. — 
The Question to be Answered. — The apparent Incompre- 
hensibility of this Failure. — The Operations at Petro- 
paulski and De Castries Bay compared. 

I have mentioned the repulse at Petropaulski in 
terms which will perhaps sound strange to most 
people, for unhappily the un-English and unmanly 
policy of veiling ill success, caused by the ignorance 
of the art of war on the part of chiefs, is rapidly 
gaining ground amongst us, until the only re- 
deeming point in the bare and stiff despatches of our 
leaders — their truth — can hardly be depended on in 
cases of failure. 

This system acts fatally in two ways : — First, the 
responsibility of command is readily assumed by the 
incompetent, for they trust, in the event of mishaps, 
that it will be thought prudent to conceal them, — 
whilst the paeans for success will be chaunted, whe- 
ther gained by the head or the arm. Secondly, the 
u 4 



296 



APPENDIX I. 



professional lesson is lost upon the young who were 
present, and upon the absent ; upon the young, be- 
cause, though present, the causes of failure will only 
be whispered, and to an honourable mind, whispers and 
calumny have a close connection, and because the 
inevitable and invariable public punishment, which 
should attend professional incompetency, is not seen 
to follow it immediately. To the absent, the want of 
open and avowed documents, on which to form a 
judgment, is a bar to any teaching from even the 
bitterly bought experience of their comrades. 

It is to be wished that one of the officers present 
at Petropaulski last year, 1854, should write an 
account of the steps taken on that occasion: the 
problem was a simple question of the readiest means 
of silencing the fire of a frigate, of a transport, and 
five uncasemated, open, and small barbette batteries 
of earth, by ships mustering a great superiority of 
guns. 

The enemy's position was a good one ; but the bat- 
teries were designed, traced, built, armed, and worked 
by naval officers and seamen, assisted by the few troops 
under the Governor of Kamtschatka, who was also 
a naval officer, and the chief portion of the guns in 
the batteries were taken from the broadside of the 
frigate which she could not make use of in the position 
she occupied. Notwithstanding all I have heard from 
English and French naval officers, with the plan 
before me, it is still inconceivable that four frigates, 



APPENDIX I. 



297 



a steamer, and a brig, should have failed in silencing 
the enemy's guns, or that, however ill-conducted or 
disorderly the landings may have been, that they 
should have miscarried. 

Such failures, unless properly sifted, cause hesi- 
tation in the future approach of works of even insig- 
nificant profiles, and raise doubts of the propriety of 
landing on occasions when success is almost certain. 

It was the same Russian frigate which we saw 
this year in De Castries Bay, but the superiority of 
guns, as well as of position, was, on this rencontre, on 
her side ; for with the corvette, steamer, and trans- 
ports at anchor near her, 106 guns could be opposed 
to the 69 mounted by our frigate, corvette, and 
brig, and there was no survey of the bay in our 
hands, to allow a secure entrance to be effected: 
whereas Belcher's exquisitely finished survey of 
Petropaulski and AwatskaBays, and upwards of 210 
guns against less than 70, placed the allied assailants 
in the latter waters in an enviable position. 

On one occasion everything seemed to promise, if 
not ensure, success to the attack; whilst in De 
Castries Bay every superiority, save of seamanship 
and of courage, was on the defensive side, 



298 



APPENDIX II. 

Suggestions for future Operations in the Gulf of Tartary. — 
Whence good Charts are obtainable. — Description of 
Ships to be used — Light Steamers with heavy Guns. — 
Colliers. — Blockade of Northern Entrance to the Gulf of 
Amur. — The Employment of Troops seemingly useless. — 
Hopes of early News from Gulf of Tartary. — Lesson taught 
last Spring. 

The attempts to enter the Amur having failed, it 
may be permitted me to make a few remarks on the 
course to be pursued in any future operations, as the 
.Russian ships can scarcely be allowed to remain 
unmolested or unblockaded, in a position from which 
a sally against our trade is so tempting : putting 
aside all considerations of the political advantages to 
be gained by weakening the ascendancy our adver- 
sary has obtained over China and Japan from his 
extension of conterminous territories. 

Good charts of the two entrances into the Amur are 
it is believed in the possession of the Dutch Admiralty, 
and it is to be presumed that the employment of the 
proper agency would obtain accurate copies before the 
commencement of the next campaign in May. The 
description of ships to be employed is a point on 
which a landsman has no apparent right to enter. 
Shallow waters, short seasons for operations, shores 
defended by guns of whose range and capabilities we 



APPENDIX IT. 



299 



possess sufficient information, are probably the 
chief obstacles to forcing the southern entrance — 
that earliest open> if not the only practicable 
one. Common sense would suggest that steamers of 
light draughty carrying guns of the extreme range 
obtainable, supported by steam-frigates, accompa- 
nied or followed by colliers, are the readiest means 
by which a power commanding the sea can crush a 
weak naval foe, sheltered in shallow waters, and from 
whom all succours by sea are cut off. What was the 
plan adopted ? 

A demonstration, or at most the blockade — by 
two screw corvettes — would appear sufficient for 
the northern mouth, unless better information re- 
ceived from charts or Mantchoo Tartars lead to a sup- 
position that a practicable entrance exists from the Sea 
of Okhotsk, — a supposition, indeed, to which all the 
physical data procurable at first seemingly tended. 

All operations by land, in a country without 
roads or settled inhabitants, and thickly wooded, 
are out of the question, supposing even that 
troops could be landed in sufficient numbers to cope 
with the large force which next spring would pro- 
bably be brought down the Amur from Irkutsk^ or 
the centre of Eastern Siberia. 

There is yet a hope that all such speculations are 
futile, and that the intrepidity, judgment, and good 
fortune of the young and active commodore lately 
sent back to the Gulf of Tartary, has, ere this, gained 



300 



APPENDIX II. 



the prizes which his sagacity and zeal had once 
before placed within the reach of the English squad- 
ron. A few weeks will bring the result of an 
advance made so tardily as almost to forbid all hopes 
of success. Should the talents and ardour of officers 
and men lose the prize they deserved, it is to be 
desired that next spring our squadron should be early 
in the field, to prevent a repetition of the opening 
scene of the late campaign in the Pacific, — the escape 
of the enemy's ships before the arrival of the block- 
ading squadron. 



THE END. 



London : 
Printed by Spottiswoode & Co., 
New-street-Square. 



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